BACOLOD CITY – The ruins of a once grand mansion built by a Negrense sugar baron have been turned into a tourist attraction by his great grandson.

The mansion, built in the early 1900s by Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson (1865-1948) in Talisay City, was torched in the early part of World War II by the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East), composed of Filipino guerrilla fighters, to prevent the Japanese forces from utilizing it as their headquarters, said his great grandson Raymund Javellana.

It took days of inferno to bring down the roof and the two-inch wooden floors of the mansion that was never rebuilt, Javellana said.

Lacson’s first wife was Maria Braga, a Portuguese from Macau, whose father was a ship captain who bought many fine items during his travels to Europe and Asia, Javellana said.

So when Don Mariano built his mansion in the midst of his vast sugar plantation, it was said to be the largest residential structure ever built at that time, and had in it the finest furniture, chinaware, and decorative items, Javellana said.

“The structure of The Ruins is of Italianate architecture with neo-Romanesque columns, having a very close semblance to the facade of Carnegie Hall in New York City. In New England, they often were homes to ship captains. A belvedere, facing west, affords a beautiful view of the sunset in a glassed-in sunroom with bay windows,” a brochure of the place says.

Javellana said one of Don Mariano’s sons, Felipe, supervised the construction of the mansion making sure that the A-grade mixture of concrete and its pouring was precisely followed. This is probably why despite the ravages of nature, the cement structure of the building remains intact today.

The garden

One of Don Mariano’s daughters, Angelina, created a beautiful garden filled with lilies in and around the 4-tiered fountain fronting the mansion, all brought in from abroad. A Japanese gardener who painstakingly took care of the plants until the burning of the mansion was nowhere to be found when the war broke out, Javellana said.

Javellana, who operated a travel agency, returned last year to Negros Occidental from Manila where he had been living and decided to turn the ruins of the home of his ancestors into a tourist attraction.

So today, the 903-square meter structure still stands tall in the midde of the sugar plantation and continues to awe both local and foreign tourists, Javellana said.

The ruins have been spruced up and the gardens and the fountain restored.

Javellana maintains a nursery of plants in the east side of the mansion that are sold along with jams from berries grown in the grounds.

Today the gardens of The Ruins that offer a picture-perfect backdrop have also been the site of weddings, photo shoots and concerts.

The place, 2.4 kilometers away from Talisay City’s main highway, is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily to tourists who pay an entrance fee of P25.