Casa Bernedo, also known as the Bernedo Ancestral House, is a two-storey ancestral house in Dipolog,

Zamboanga del Norte Zamboanga del Norte ( Cebuano: ''Amihanang Zamboanga''; Subanon: ''Utara Sembwangan''; tl, Hilagang Zamboanga), officially the Province of Zamboanga del Norte, is a province in the Philippines situated within the Zamboanga Peninsula region in M ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

History

The house was the residence of the then-influential Bernedo family of Dipolog. It was built by the turn of the 20th century by a

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ind ...

named Justo Bernedo and his wife Isabel Macias, a Filipina from Dipolog, where they raised their nine children together. The Bernedo house largely retained its original structure, only undergoing a minor renovation shortly after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Known to be an influential and a religious family in Dipolog's earliest days, the Bernedos hosted numerous dignitaries and

VIPs A very important person or personage (VIP or V.I.P.) is a person who is accorded special privileges due to their high social status, influence or importance. The term was not common until sometime after World War 2 by RAF pilots. Examples incl ...

who visited Dipolog in the house, including the town's Catholic church clergy and Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay. Following the death of the last of the nine surviving Bernedo-Macias siblings in 2008, the Bernedo house was closed permanently. On July 1, 2012, the Bernedo house, now named Casa Bernedo, was reopened to the public as the Dipolog City Center for the Culture and the Arts in time for the city's centenary to be observed exactly a year later.

The house today

Today, Casa Bernedo serves as a museum and art gallery. The lower floor, which was said to be a small storage house or

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

(commonly known as a ''bodega''), serves as a venue for visual art and photography exhibits. Another room on the lower floor was used as a local

gun store A gun shop (also known by various other names such as firearm store and gun store) is a business that sells Firearm, firearms, such as Handgun, handguns and Long gun, long guns, to individuals in an open shopping format. It may also provide repai ...

, until that space is currently occupied as the city's tourism office by the City Government of Dipolog. The second floor, where the Bernedo-Macias family once lived, serves as a museum preserving the family house's interior and arrangements. The floors and their home appliances were all made out of Philippine hardwood, and their kitchen appliances were all imported from the United States. It was said that the kitchen, also on the upper floor, had a story on Dipolog becoming the ''Spanish sardine capital'' today when Isabel Macias Bernedo would make Spanish-styled sardines which she learned from her sister Concepcion Macias Montaño every summer. Casa Bernedo is open to the public free of charge.

History

The house today

References

See also