Cebu Cathedral Museum is an ecclesiastical museum of the Archdiocese of Cebu. The building itself doesn't have exact information about when it was constructed because the archdiocesan archives were burned along with the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace during the trial bombing of the U.S. forces in September 1944. However, some historians believe it was built by Bishop Santos Gomez Marañon during the mid-1800s. Bishop Marañon was known as a church builder. He designed the Metropolitan Cathedral and other religious structures in the province of Cebu.
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| Photo: Mercedez Benz used by Pope John II in 1995. |
The Gallery:
The History of Cebu: The first gallery contains photographs showing how Catholics grew in Cebu. Then, the second gallery has the collection of memorabilia of His Eminence Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal, which includes religious books, the vestments worn during his Episcopal ordination, a ring from his predecessor Julio Cardinal Rosales, and some golden and silver coins (I don't know what it symbolizes). The fourth gallery contains different saints, which are from other private individuals. The fifth has a collection of religious chalices, ciboriums, cruets, monstrances, and vestments. There were still many tiny pieces, and I have no idea what those were.
The museum's structure is an example of bahay-na-bato based on bahay kubo architecture. Materials like bamboo and sawali were perfectly created and decorated for the walls, hardwood trunks for the posts, and Capiz shells for the expansive windows. READ: Location, How to Get Here, My Solo-Backpacking in Cebu