Alcoreza family museum designed by architect Michael Adriano
A mausoleum, which serves as the resting place of a person, preserves memories and builds a legacy for families to look back to.
Some mausoleums, however, have become popular destinations because they either house prominent figures or they sport unusual designs.
The following are some of the mausoleums that have since drawn the public for the peculiar features they possess.
Marcos mausoleum
The temperature-controlled stone mausoleum that used to house the frozen remains of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos had also become a tourist destination in Batac City, Ilocos Norte.
Since September 1993 when the remains arrived from Hawaii, the mausoleum beneath the family’s ancestral house became Ilocos Norte’s third most visited place. It used to draw at least 1,000 tourists daily on weekdays, and about 2,000 more on weekends. Some tourists would even arrive past the viewing hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Nearby, entrepreneurs had set up four booths to sell noodles, native sausages, processed meat, and rice cake from Candon City.
After President Duterte allowed Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani starting November last year, tourism arrivals dropped significantly, especially right after the family closed the mausoleum, according to news reports.
Only 32,903 visitors were recorded by the Marcos center from January to May this year, compared with the 131,168 visitors it drew for the same period last year, according to the Ilocos Norte tourism office.
Napoles family mausoleum
A two-storey dark grey mausoleum at the upscale Heritage Park in Taguig City had served as venue for social functions hosted by alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
The Inquirer, in July 2013, broke the story that P10 billion in pork barrel allocations, meant to ease rural poverty, had gone to ghost projects and massive kickbacks.
Before the scam came to light, it was said that a party was held at least three times a year at the mausoleum, where Napoles’ mother was interred. The gathering had 24-hour catering and air-conditioned tents.
It was also at the Heritage Park in Taguig City that Napoles made her voluntary surrender on Aug. 28, 2013 to then presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda.
Napoles reportedly owns around 280 sqm of “lawn and estate lots” at the Heritage Park, where the latest price list showed that the value of a lawn lot ranges from P169,500 to P238,240 at 2.44 sqm. Estate lots cost between P17.9 million and P25 million at 39.04 sqm.
Colorful mausoleums
The row of colorful mausoleums in Pila Memorial Park has become an unusual attraction in the province of Laguna.
Playful touches of purple and the vibrant shades of blue stand out to give life to memories of lost loved ones.
Some mausoleum had been painted yellow and brown. Others showed a combination of blue and yellow, yellow and gray, blue and purple.
Visitors even described one mausoleum as “something taken out of the Enchanted Kingdom,” which is a popular theme park located in the same province.
Also found in the cemetery is a mausoleum that has the design of a rooster on top of its façade. The said mausoleum belonged to someone who loved cockfights.
Alcoreza family mausoleum
A unique mausoleum design with a modern approach was built for the Alcorezas, a family of meat producers.
Arch. Michael Adriano previously said that this had been his most challenging project.
His client wanted their business identity and their father’s legacy to be reflected in the design. So he incorporated irregular shapes that resembled slabs of meat on the façade of the mausoleum, as part of his design philosophy that he calls modern architecture.
“Even if my client requested me to do a traditional or classic design, I made sure that it has a modern approach,” he previously said.
Inday Potenciana Shrine
The mausoleum in the town of Anda in Bohol, which houses the preserved remains of Potenciana Saranza, also known as Inday Potenciana, draws hundreds of visitors, especially on Nov. 1 and 2, for various reasons.
Devotees come to the shrine with wishes and petitions after there were claims that people were healed of their ailments or that their wishes were granted after praying to Potenciana.
She was buried in the cemetery in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental. But 10 years later, her parents dreamed that her remains should be brought to her hometown in Anda.
When they exhumed her body, Potenciana’s parents were surprised that her remains were still intact.
She was buried near their house in Poblacion, near Quinale Beach in Anda.
After a year, a health officer told the family to transfer her remains to the municipal cemetery. Silud said that just like the first time her body was exhumed, her remains were intact.