NHCP opens Underground Cemetery Museum in Nagcarlan, Laguna

The Natural Historical Commission of the Philippines had recently opened the Museo ng Libingan sa Ilalim ng Lupa in Nagcarlan, Laguna, last Friday, January 6.

Image grabbed from nhcp.gov.ph

Officials of the NHCP, Professor Regalado Trota Jose, Chief Archivist of the University of Santo Tomas; with Ludovico Badoy, NHCP acting Executive Director and Mayor Nelson Osuna of Nagcarlan led the inauguration of the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery Museum after some restoration works to preserve the area, although small compared to other historical landmarks, were finished.

The museum features a brief history of the Nagcarlan underground cemetery, its restoration, heritage materials used and conservation techniques used by the NHCP to restore the chapel.

Brian Paraiso of the NHCP commemoration and museum division said that the heritage-themed museum was made to educate the people on the difficulties in preserving and restoring the heritage defices using scientific methods.

Also, according to the NHCP acting Chairman and Commissioner, Rene Escalante, they’ve chosen the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery because it is one of a kind in the Philippines with a burial site beneath a church.

NHCP is also considered as a landmark because the underground crypt was used as a secret meeting place by the Filipino revolutionaries in 1896.

Sources: Inquirer.net, Manila Bulletin, nhcp.gov.ph