The Celso V. Ledesma House

Heritage survives not only through preservation, but through participation. Thank you, Feature Iloilo 🦅✨

Celso Ledesma House

Built in 1922 during Iloilo’s sugar boom era, The Celso V. Ledesma House is one of the city’s most distinctive ancestral homes and is officially recognized by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) as a heritage house.

Built by industrialist Celso Villalobos Ledesma and later inherited by architect and former Iloilo City Mayor T.S. Zafiro Ledesma, the house is known for its eclectic architecture, original stained glass, custom Gonzalo Puyat furniture, murals by Vicente de San Miguel, and its iconic horseshoe-shaped dining table with central fountain.

Traditionally described as Beaux-Arts, more recent studies have identified the house as Mannerist - blending classical architecture with eccentric details, layered symbolism, and unexpected combinations of styles. Today, the house remains both a family residence and a living cultural space.

As part of National Heritage Month 2026, the house currently hosts Signs of Life, a contemporary heritage activation organized by the Tropical Research Institute of Panay (TRIP). Through installations, sound works, ritual, workshops, and community participation, the exhibition explores how heritage spaces can remain alive through continued use and dialogue with contemporary culture. Rather than treating heritage as frozen in time, Signs of Life asks how old spaces can continue to evolve, gather people, and create new memory.

---------

The Celso Ledesma House among sites visited during the Living Heritage Museum Tour: Commonwealth Era, an initiative by the Iloilo City Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions Alliance | MICE Center Iloilo City, in celebration of National Heritage Month. The activity highlighted commonwealth era properties in the metro, and culminated with an American Ilonggo dinner by LaMeza Ilonggo.

Commonwealth Era Tour:
📌Sunburst Park
📌Museum of Philippine Maritime History
📌Casa de España
📌Lizares Mansion
📌National Museum of the Philippines
📌Celso Ledesma House

"Culture does not survive in a preservational mode; it survives when people continue to practice it, share it, and give it meaning in its everyday life." 🌱✨

"Culture does not survive in a preservational mode; it survives when people continue to practice it, share it, and give it meaning in its everyday life." 🌱✨

Speaking at the Pamana FriDates cultural series at the Likhang Filipino Exhibition Halls, National Commission for Culture and the Arts Chairperson Dr. Eric B. Zerrudo rejected traditional models of heritage conservation, calling for a shift toward active commercial practice.

Madamo gid nga salamat Carl Lorenz Cervantes for writing such a powerful and meaningful text about community and culture. It means a lot that your words became part of Signs of Life and were brought to the streets through the wheatpaste intervention by Kikik Kollektive

Ang kultura wala lang ginabantayan — ginapaambit, ginatuga, kag ginapadayon ini sang komunidad. 🤲🏻

Pinaka-una namon nga wheatpaste art sa syudad sang Iloilo, in collaboration with Filipino Psychospiritual Researcher, Carl Lorenz Cervantes / Sikodiwa.

Kabahin ini sang SIGNS OF LIFE sa The Celso V. Ledesma House, gin-organisa sang TRIP para sa National Heritage Month sining Mayo.

"ANG KULTURA GINAPANUBLI; KAG PARA MAGPADAYON INI NGA BUHI, KINAHANGLAN INI ITUDLO, IPAKITA, IDIHON KAG IPAAMBIT SA IBAN."

Project concept and curation: Patrick Jamora

Panimalay, Gapangugat
Wheatpaste Curation and Design: Marrz Capanang
Team Leads: Julliana Pudadera, Khian Barniego, Raprap Indicio, Ken Cadenas

Crew:
Matmat Abela / Joyjoy Gimoto/ Abigail Amon
Bela Jagolino/ Clarence Ceriola/ Shani Fernandez
JV Evangelista / Yzah Martina/ Vinsoy Cordova

Words excerpted from the essay, CULTURE LIVES by SIKODIWA
Translation by Tin Buenavista

In the photo: KK fam who actively participated yesterday - activating various parts of the Celso Ledesma House with neighborhood stories, more-than-human existence as heritage, community care, and many vitalizing gestures.

📷 Jasper Chin-Nobleza

𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝟗: 𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐌 𝐒𝐀 𝐈𝐃Ô, 𝟏𝟏:𝟏𝟏
By Margaux Blas

Created for Heritage Month at the Celso V. Ledesma House, Andam sa Idô, 11:11 transforms discarded textiles, rope, plastic, and found materials into a collective weaving installation at the entrance of the house. Visitors were invited to contribute fabric scraps throughout the event, turning the work into a gesture of repair, care, and shared labor.

Functioning both as an artwork and a reimagined house sign, the installation references the familiar “Beware of Dog” warning through a more personal lens. At its center is Yoko, the artist’s late dog, remembered here as a guardian, companion, and quiet source of comfort.

Part of Signs of Life, presented by TRIP for National Heritage Month at the Celso V. Ledesma House.
⁣
⁣

𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝟖: ⁣
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐘𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐂 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐃𝐀𝐃 ⁣
𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄⁣

By Margaux Blas
⁣
Drawing from the experience of hearing distant karaoke carried through the amihan winds, this work reflects on the tension between environmental sensitivity and karaoke as a deeply embedded form of communal joy, release, and everyday expression within Filipino life.⁣
⁣
Using found objects and references to rural domestic culture, the installation brings together themes of noise, nostalgia, leisure, and coexistence. Moving between personal irritation and cultural empathy, the work reflects on the complicated ways people share space, emotion, and everyday life.⁣
⁣
Part of Signs of Life, presented by TRIP for National Heritage Month at the Celso V. Ledesma House.⁣
⁣
𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟗.⁣
⁣
🎟️𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟗 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟏𝟎 𝐚𝐦⁣⁣
https://luma.com/wh3l9wue⁣
12 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵⁣
⁣
🎟️𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟗 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐 p𝐦⁣⁣
https://luma.com/mvslk16k⁣
12 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵⁣
⁣