Story & photos by Marky Ramone Go
“There’s only one country I haven’t been to. Nepal. I don’t know why—I just haven’t had the chance”—Don Ado told us after he overheard me asking my friend Karla “Can you guess how many countries he had traveled to?” It wasn’t a question concocted out of the blue. I wondered about it after surveying through the massive art, historic, religious and souvenir collection housed inside Don Ado’s private mansion.
A one-man curator
Inheriting a flair for collecting mementoes of significance from his parents Arsenio and Rosario Escudero, the founders of Villa Escudero, Don Conrado (Ado) multiplied the family’s collection through his own passion of assembling relics with traditional, spiritual, artistic and historical importance. His house is dotted from wall to wall of items brought from all over the world. The hallway leading to the master’s and guest rooms is decked with paintings from prominent painters, such as Fernando Amorsolo and Felix Resureccion Hidalgo, just to mention a few. Deep inside, you will find the spacious living room filled with sculptures, statues, paintings, old photographs, colonial furniture and other what-haves one only sees inside a museum.
I also find truly remarkable the absolute sharpness of Don Ado’s memory in recalling the tales behind most of his collections. At one point he pointed at the centuries-old wooden arch adorned with intricate carvings “I got that at Yogyakarta. I passed by it near a temple and asked the caretaker if I can buy it. The next day I came in with a truck ready to haul it.”
With my mind blown away and jaw almost dropped to the floor, we ended our tour only to know we have yet to see the real collection of the Escudero family, all of which are kept but available for public viewing, at the Escudero Private Museum. “Now the real tour begins,” Don Ado tells us.
Pink church-like museum
Did you know that the original altar of Quiapo Church is still in well-preserved condition and sits inside the Escudero Museum?
No thanks to the church’s postwar parish priest who wanted to replace the original altar with a new one, and thanks to the Escudero family for recognizing the importance of conserving the original altar, it can now be found as a striking centerpiece surrounded by other religious and historical pieces.
Information overload and visual feast surely await every visitor who enters the doors of the Escudero Private Museum since it is stacked from wall to wall, ground to ceiling on both floors with stunning and interesting pieces. There is also a section dedicated to taxidermy, where animals like the Philippine Eagle, the Tamaraw and many others are well preserved, most of which were from the many hunting soirees of the Escudero patriarch from the decades preceding WWII.
While I find all the facts explained to us by Chef Cocoy Ventura III, Villa Escudero’s executive chef, hard to digest all at once, I welcomed all my newfound knowledge because it felt like going on a time travel through Philippine history.
The Heritage houses
“But wait, there’s more” rang in my head as we found ourselves being indulged with a very enlightening walking tour around the sprawling, well-manicured garden of the Escudero Ancestral mansion, where the other surviving sisters of Don Ado reside. Not open for tourists, we were lucky enough to get inside with the permission from Don Ado. Made mostly from the rare red narra, this pink and white mansion has a short flight of stairs leading to the front door. Once inside, you will quickly notice the dark-brown wooden floor and thick marble tabletops.
Hanging lavish chandeliers, artworks from famed artists, iron candle stands, religious statues such as a life-size Nuestra Señora de Paloma made of solid ivory, and a sleeping Sto Niño (Santo Niño Dormido) are just some of the eye-popping collections.
Casa Consuelo is an ancestral house originally constructed in Pampanga in the latter part of the 1800s and used to be owned by then-Angeles City Mayor Don Esteban Gomez and his wife Doña Josefa Pamintuan de Gomez. It was bought and transferred to the Villa Escudero piece by piece and reconstructed to its present site.
Today, it stands as a perfect accompaniment to the Escudero ancestral house and museum, exemplifying the colonial architecture, specifically embodying the floral style prevalent in the late 19th century. Unlike the Escudero ancestral mansion, Casa Consuelo is included, along with the main museum, in the heritage tours being offered by Villa Escudero to its guests.
With wide windows and a roomy layout, the sunlight seeps through and brightens its interiors adorned with mostly wooden materials and antique furniture. Various rooms are aligned with the square-shaped hallway overlooking an expansive lobby. Imprints from the works of art from the who’s who of the art world are kept in posterity inside the Casa Consuelo. Isabelo Tampinco’s sculptures, Chinese artisan Ah Tay’s carved four-poster bed and pieces from renowned European furniture maker August Thonet are just some of the prized items.
More than a place to unwind and relax close to nature, Villa Escudero, as I discovered, is also all about digging deep into our rich culture. If these beautiful vestiges of the past—which the Escuderos have collected and stored—could talk, their stories might even last a lifetime’s worth of listening. In the meantime, if you chance upon him, let Don Ado tell his fascinating stories.
Image credits: Marky Ramone Go