Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House

The Yap-Sandiego house stands in Parian, the old Chinese merchant quarter of Cebu, and is generally dated to the late 1600s, which would make it among the oldest surviving residential buildings in the country. It was built by a Chinese merchant, Don Juan Yap, and his wife, using coral stone blocks bound with egg white and lime for the ground floor and hardwood above, with a tiled roof - the construction that has kept it standing through earthquakes and the wars since. It descended through the family and is owned today by a Sandiego descendant who opened it as a museum, and the furnishings are the family's own: santos, chests, beds, ceramics, religious images and household objects accumulated over generations, arranged as a house rather than a display. It is small, crowded with things, and unrestored in the museum sense. Parian around it holds the heritage monument and the Jesuit House a short walk away.

What you actually see

• The coral-stone ground floor - seventeenth-century construction.
• The hardwood upper storey - the living floor and its furnishings.
• The family collection - santos, chests, ceramics and images.
• The Parian setting - the old Chinese quarter around it.

When to go

Year-round; mornings are quieter. It keeps daily hours but they are short - check before walking over.

Honest expectations

It is small and densely furnished, closer to a private collection than a curated museum. Stairs are steep and narrow. Entry is charged, and photography rules are the family's.

Nearby

The Jesuit House of 1730 and the Parian monument are a short walk; Magellan's Cross and the basilica are ten minutes away.