Marikina Shoe Museum

Marikina has been the centre of Philippine shoemaking since the nineteenth century, and the museum on Rizal Street covers that trade: the tools and workshops of the local industry, shoes made by Marikina craftsmen across the decades, and displays on the city's peak as a manufacturing centre and its decline under imported competition. It is best known, however, for a different collection - several hundred pairs of shoes belonging to Imelda Marcos, part of the thousands found at Malacañang Palace after the family fled in 1986 and which became the enduring international shorthand for the excesses of that period. The museum presents them as objects with a label rather than an argument, and visitors bring their own reading. Elsewhere in the collection are shoes donated by presidents, actors and other public figures. It takes under an hour and pairs with a walk around Marikina's riverbanks and the shoe shops that still operate in the city.

What you actually see

• The Marcos collection - hundreds of pairs from Malacañang.
• The trade displays - tools and shoes from Marikina's workshops.
• The donated pairs - shoes from presidents and public figures.
• The city context - the shoemaking district around the museum.

When to go

Year-round; weekday mornings are quiet. The museum keeps limited hours and closes on some days - check before travelling across Metro Manila.

Honest expectations

It is small and the presentation is basic. The Marcos shoes are displayed with minimal historical framing - readers who want the political context should bring it with them. An hour covers everything.

Nearby

Marikina's riverbanks and shoe shops are close; Antipolo and Pinto Art Museum are half an hour east.