Cebu - Yap Sandiego Ancestral House & Fort San Pedro

Previous story here:

Cebu part I

Cebu part II

We went to Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House after the visited the Lapu-Lapu and Magellan statue. It's somewhere in the Chinese Street as well. The house is originally owned by a Chinese merchant, Don Juan Yap and Dona Maria Florido. It is one of the oldest existing residential structure in Philippines, built around 17th century. One of the unique characteristic it that it is built from coral stone.

The moment I stepped inside, I can see a lot of antique stuff and a lot of religious statues like Virgin Mary and the angels. In some corner, the house a little bit spooky, maybe due to the light, or the religion stuff. I mean, we Muslims don't have any statue right, and in the house statues are everywhere. Nasib baik takde muka scary.

The house from outside

One of Cebu heritage

The family pictures are everywhere

I'm not sure which generation of Yap/Sandiego is this

The religious statues

Wooden stairs leading up

Jesus plate at the window

The ancestors

Wishing well. Some tourist will throw coins and wish for something they want

It is a wooden boat lift up at the second floor, if you can see it closely. It has become a pot for some plants.

This is the original seat for their women to give birth

The hall on second level

The wall is conencted directly to the next building. The original wall was damaged and they plastered it with cement. The handpainting was added to make it look nicer.

The Yap and Sandiego family. I forgot which generation. I jot down the info but my not lost :( 

Another table decor

The dining hall.

The master bedroom. The current Yap and Sandiego family don't live here on daily basis, but they still come and sleep in this room like once a month. Somehow this room gives me a goosebump..it's like "alive". Maybe sebab banyak patung kot.

Another corner in the master bedroom.

Their wedding picture

What do you think about the house? Spooky isn't it? Masa masuk tu dah baca macam2 doa and I didn't touch anything hehe.


Then we went to Fort San Pedro. It's the smallest and oldest fort in Philippines and built in triangular shape, with 2 shapes facing the sea and the 3rd one facing fronting the land. It is labored under Spanish commander Lopez Miguel in 1938. I didn't take much picture pun sbb dalam tu is their normal deco - baby Jesus. They have very strong belief in Christianity and our tour guide suka bercerita so, most of the stories mesti ada cerita pasal baby Jesus. Macam derang adore sangat baby Jesus ni.. a symbol of purity to them. Walaupun kitaorg ni pakai tudung bagai..they keep on saying baby Jesus is God etc.. I pun angguk2 senyum je la. Nak argue tak berani, tand don't know how to say it pun.

Fort San Pedro from the front

Some part is build from coral

Another coral design

Typical pose hehehe

"The Fort San Pedro Restoration was a tedious, time and labor consuming project. To restore the fort as close to the original as possible, coral stones which were hauled from under the sea along Cebu coastal towns were utilized. Delivered crudely cut to the restoration site, the fort laborers did the final cutting and polishing to make the blocks fit each other. - wikipedia"

Another interesting situation I found in Cebu..most of the road has this signage at their turning point.

A few metres before the junction "TURN RIGHT AT ANY TIME WITH CARE"

But when then the put this at the junction "NOR RIGHT TURN". It's contradicting and I find it funny. Maybe it has different meaning that I don't understand.