ABOUT THE MUSEUM
In response to the challenge of the late Pope John Paul II, the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church was formed on July 20, 2002. A great part of its task was to reestablish the Cathedral Museum of Cebu which was first established by the late Msgr. Virgilio “Nene” Yap.
The building which housed the temporary collection was the old rectory of the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. Old maps of Cebu show that the building has been around since the 19th century — surviving wars, uninformed renovators, and the elements.
As in the typical structures of this period, the rectory was made of stone on the lower level and a combination of hardwood and other lighter materials on the upper level. Its inner walls were made of “tabique pampango,” a thin wall of interlaced pieces of bamboo which was covered with lime mixed with sand. The convent roof was made of clay tiles or “teja.”
The rectory shares the history of the Cebuanos who have seen it used as a parish convent, a school, a cooperative store, and even as a temporary chapel during the renovation of the cathedral. Now, it will surface in another adaptive reuse as an Ecclesiastical Museum.