Gaston Mansion (Hacienda Santa Rosalia)
Manapla, Negros Occidental · about 26 km from 3ACs Apartment, Talisay City
1930s hacienda mansion from the film 'Oro, Plata, Mata' — with heirloom buffet lunches.
About
The stately two-storey ancestral home of the Gaston family, a few steps from the Chapel of Cartwheels. Rooms are full of family photos, crystal, silver and fine china; its grand staircase starred in Peque Gallaga's 1982 film 'Oro, Plata, Mata'. Groups can book a hacienda lunch of family recipes.
History
Built in the 1930s by Jose Gaston and his wife Consuelo Azcona, grandson of the Frenchman Yves Leopold Germain Gaston. Jose modelled it on his father Victor's house in Silay, now Balay Negrense. Hacienda Rosalia is on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list of Negros sugar sites.
Why visit
Feel real hacienda life — and eat it, too.
How to get there
Hacienda Santa Rosalia, Manapla — sign on the left of the highway just past Victorias, coming from Bacolod.
- Bus to Manapla, then tricycle
- Private car
Prices (estimates)
- House visit / heirloom lunchBy reservation — ask via the Hacienda Santa Rosalia Facebook page
Hours / best time: By appointment
Nearby places
- Chapel of Cartwheels (Hacienda Rosalia) — A chapel built from old bull-cart wheels in the middle of sugarcane fields.
- Church of St. Joseph the Worker ('Angry Christ') — Psychedelic altar mural inside the Victorias Milling Company compound.
- Victorias Milling Company (VMC) Complex — One of the world's largest integrated sugar mills — home of the Angry Christ chapel.
- Gawahon Eco Park — Forest trails, river pools and waterfalls in the Victorias uplands.
- Sicaba Beach & Mangroves — Bamboo bridges over a mangrove plantation where visitors can plant trees.