Cemetery tours in Negros Occ drawing tourists

BACOLOD CITY , Philippines — The Province of Negros Occidental is offering cemetery tours as one of its emerging tourism attractions with stories of ancestors that mirror the history, culture and tradition of the Negrenses.

Raymond Alunan, operations assistant of the Provincial Tourism Division, said cemetery tours are now part of the cultural heritage travel attracting a growing number of domestic and foreign tourists.

Alunan said the Negros Occidental Tourism Division has been pushing for the conduct of cultural mapping in Bacolod City that would pave the way for the creation of an ordinance preserving its important cultural assets like the Luzuriaga Mausoleum or the Familia de Luzuriaga Cemetery.

This pre-war cemetery was established in honor of the late Negros Occidental Governor Jose Ruiz de Luzuriaga. With an area of at least 500 square meters, the mausoleum is situated on the intersection of Burgos and Lopez Jaena Streets at Barangay Villamonte.

It has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the only family mausoleum in the world built in the middle of the street. Located between major thoroughfares, hundreds of both private and public vehicles pass around the Familia de Luzuriaga Cemetery every day.

Alunan said Negros Occidental has so much to tell about its cemeteries. For example, the Luzuriaga Mausoleum has become a living landmark of the Negrenses’ past, Alunan said.

From being the final resting place of Luzuriaga in the 1920s, the mausoleum now houses more than 10 other tombs of the former governor's family members.

Alunan said the history of the mausoleum can be traced back in the1950s when the Bacolod City government implemented a road widening project in the area, but without affecting the structure in exchange of the old City Hall donated by the then governor Luzuriaga.

Alunan said that, through cemetery tours, Negrenses should be able to recognize the contribution of the person buried to the history of the province.

Luzuriaga, who was the first appointed governor of Negros Occidental in 1901, served as arbiter or “middle person” of the Negrenses and Spaniards during the Negros Revolution. He can, therefore, be considered as one of the Negrense heroes material to the province's freedom from Spanish colonizers, Alunan said.

The Luzuriaga mausoleum is surrounded by three other similar historic structures: The Jayme-Gamboa Mausoleum, the Burgos Public Cemetery, and the Lopez Mausoleum.

The two other mausoleums were built for the two former governors – Antonio Jayme and Manuel Lopez. (PNA)