Rizal Shrine (Calamba)
The original Rizal ancestral house took two years for Francisco Mercado, Rizal's father to build. The Spanish authorities confiscated the house in 1891. Paciano Rizal, brother of Jose P. Rizal reoccupied the house during the Philippine Revolution, but lost it again to the friars. It was subsequently sold, destroyed in World War II and was finally demolished. The government bought the ruins of the Rizal House for ₱ 24,000. By Executive Order no. 145 of President Elpidio Quirino, a replica of the birthplace of Jose Rizal commenced with funds mainly contributed by school children in the Philippines and was supervised by Architect Juan F. Nakpil in 1949. As a reconstruction of the original house, the house was a faithful reconstruction of the original house which occupies the same area and the same materials. The building was inaugurated on June 19, 1950 and served as repository of Rizal's memorabilia. In 1998, during the Centenary of the Philippine Independence, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the National Centennial Commission decided the Rizal Shrine in Calamba to focus on Rizal's childhood.
Rizal, in his anecdotes, recalled that the nipa hut in the garden as to where he learned to sketch and sculpt, the kitchen where he learned the alphabet, the bedroom where he learned to pray, the library where he discovered books and the azotea where he listened to his grandmother's stories of "skeletons and buried treasures, and trees that bloomed with diamonds." It is the same house where Rizal grew up until his formal schooling in Biñan.
Rizal, in his anecdotes, recalled that the nipa hut in the garden as to where he learned to sketch and sculpt, the kitchen where he learned the alphabet, the bedroom where he learned to pray, the library where he discovered books and the azotea where he listened to his grandmother's stories of "skeletons and buried treasures, and trees that bloomed with diamonds." It is the same house where Rizal grew up until his formal schooling in Biñan.