The Jesuit House or Museo De Parian is possibly one of the country’s oldest houses, having been built centuries ago, allegedly during the same century as Yap-Sandiego. Many artifacts in the Museo De Parian suggested that the house was built in the 1730s. However, historians and architects recently gathered evidence that Museo De Parian was built well before the 1730s, though the exact year is still unknown. The Museo De Parian, as the name suggests, is located in Cebu City’s Parian district. The discovery of a coin buried in the house, allegedly used during the Ming dynasty’s reign, revealed that the Jesuit house had been transformed several times over many centuries. As a result, it was clear that the house was owned by a Chinese family at the time.
The ground floor has now been converted into a mini-museum known as Sugbo Gallery. The gallery displays maps of old Cebu as well as photographs of Cebu in the past. The gallery also includes a mini-museum with artifacts believed to have been brought by Chinese traders during the Ming Dynasty.
