A trip to the City of Smiles wouldn't be complete without visiting the glorious past of The Ruins. The way there wasn't easy, at least for the pocket, because we were charged around Php 600 by the taxi (2-way including waiting time).
Entrance fee (as of 2015) also applies:
- Adult: Php 95
- Student: Php 40
It was 20-30 minutes away from the city center but it was worth the ride. The lots left and right were all sugar canes and it was a feast for the eyes.
They say it's best to visit The Ruins at nighttime. Others would say just before sunset because it glistens from the sun's rays. Although I'd love to stay there the whole day to experience it at every turn of the day, was only able to capture its beauty in the morning.
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| From where we look now... |
It was a short but sweet encounter with the Taj Mahal of Bacolod and here are 7 things I love about The Ruins:
1.) A Taj Mahal: Built out of love
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| To eternity |
The marker reads, "The Ruins of the mansion of Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson was built in loving memory of his deceased wife Maria Braga after her death in 1911.
The mansion, of Italianate architecture was designed to be a monument of their enduring love affair...."
It was an elaborate expression of love just as how we do to show our love to the ones who matter. Big or small, if we can only encapsulate that symbol of love every single time.
2.) Full of patterns from the intricate to the purest.
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| Love. Repeat. |
'M" symbols can be noticed in the intricacies of the architectural design. The builders also ensured that every wall were fortified and only used grade-A materials.
It's like how we are, too when we love. It repeats to do acts of love over and over again. Sometimes it's hidden. Sometimes it's explicit.
It is there. It is felt.
3.) A charm that was once enjoyed, now relived, to be experienced by generations to come.
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| To write love letters? |
As we do, as we feel, now.
4.) It takes the breath away
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| Love is an open door |
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| With you, with you |
Yes, it does. Not only because it was wrought with love but because it's beautiful and magical.
But then that's love, it's the most beautiful and magical thing the world has ever felt.
5.) Artistic in every corner possible.
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| It lights up the sky |
"Express yourself" is what it'd whisper had the walls had mouths to speak. Yet, it's not always through words. It's in every way possible.
6.) Corners speak history and culture
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| It's like an illusion |
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| Love is here |
Searches would read, "The
mansion was built in the early 1900’s by the sugar baron, Don Mariano Ledesma
Lacson (1865-1948) and was home to his unmarried children with his first wife,
Maria Braga Lacson (+1911), a Portuguese from Macau. The mansion was the
largest residential structure ever built at that time and had in it one of the
finest furniture, chinaware, and decorative items, as the father of Maria Braga
was a captain of a ship that sailed across Europe and Asia and would cart with
him these items. One of their daughters maintained a beautiful garden of lilies
in and around the 4-tiered fountain fronting the mansion, all brought in from
abroad."
7.) Stood the test of time
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| Beauty through time |
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| Walls fortified |
The marker (from no. 1) continues, "In the eye of World War II in 1942, the mansion was torched by the guerrilla fighters and was burning for 3 days, leaving behind reminders of a glorious past."
Just like The Ruins, and our expressions of love, we do it in hopes that it will last an eternity
The Ruins is located at:
Talisay City,
Negros Occidental
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