Carcar to be featured in travelogue in April

CEBU, Philippines - Carcar City will be highlighted in a travel show that will feature the country’s top vacation destinations.

City information officer Candice Acuña said the PHIL IT UP, a travelogue, which will be aired in Discovery Channel around April this year, will feature the city’s historical assortment of artistic creations, including architecturally distinctive Spanish to American vintage houses and delicacies.

The show will also feature the Philippines’ top vacation destinations seen through the eyes of its host, Mig Ayesa.

“Carcar City is lucky to be included in the show. Mig and his crew were here and we treated them to a gastronomical and heritage tour,” Acuña said.

Located some 40 kilometers southwest of Cebu City, Carcar, which was established as a municipality 414 years ago, in 1599, boasts the Balay na Tisa that literally means “House of  Tiles.”

Acuña said the palatial home was owned by the Sarmiento-Osmeña families, two very affluent clans in the region.

The house was built in 1859 and is a typical representation of the bahay-na-bato tradition found throughout the archipelago.

The travel show will also feature the Carcar Museum, which is an exhibit of fine civic architecture during the American era.

It stands as a two-story building graced by filigree woodwork and decorative fretwork.

Elegant transoms and detailed latticework characterize the façade of its structure, while multi-colored stained glass panels built on its doors and windows accentuate its look.

It was originally built as an outpatient medical facility in 1929 by then mayor Mariano Mercado. The Carcar Museum now showcases the province’s history as illustrated in panel boards and as manifested in century-old paintings, pictures, pieces of furniture, ceramic kitchenware, and other memorabilia. It was first turned into a police station before being inaugurated as a museum on July 7, 2008.

Also to be seen is the city’s classical Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria admired for its Byzantine design, Greco-Roman altar, and twin bell towers with a minaret, a distinctive architectural feature of mosques.

Also to be featured are the well-known delicacies bucarillo and ampao, but most especially Carcar lechon (roasted pig) and chicharon.  (FREEMAN)