Hotel de Oriente

Hotel de Oriente is considered to be one of the first luxury hotels that were rebuilt and it is part of the sprawling property Las Casas Filipinas de Azucar which serves as an open-air museum, and it is located in the Municipality of Bagac of the Bataan Province, within the Central Luzon Region of the Republic of the Philippines.

The original structure was built in Manila in 1889 by the order of Don Manuel Perez Marqueti, who was the father of Luis Perez Samanillo, and owner of the Perez Samanillo Building in the capital Manila, where it was considered to be a first-class hotel that most likely was the single one in the entire archipelago that constitutes the Philippines.

The location was chosen due to the proximity of the docks, and the Chinese retail businesses that were thriving at the time. The design was carried out by the Spanish architect Juan Jose Huervas y Arizmendi who was ordered to make a building not passing 100,000$. The end piece had three floors, 83 impressive rooms, in addition to the stables for 25 horses, an attic, and a grandiose entrance that is floored and roofed in red clay tiles.

The ground part of the exterior features a narrow arcade with Moorish arches, where the central one is rising to the top of the second floor. A couple of years after its construction, Hotel de Oriente was certainly considered plush and to be the best lodging ever at the end of the century.

Sadly, there is no information on what really happened to the original structure in the capital, or how it was destroyed, however, the hotel structure was rebuilt in the before mentioned hotel and heritage park Las Casas Filipinas de Azucar based on archival records and surviving photos of the original structure. Nowadays, this replica is serving as a premier convention center of the sprawling property that can accommodate people for banquets of up to 1,000 people.

Of course, with the visit to the historic park, there are tours named Walking Heritage Park that explain in greater detail the longstanding history of Hotel de Oriente and the mark it left behind. All in all, a definite source of history that will direct and point everyone towards the colonial past of the Philippines which left an enormous footprint on the culture, and architecture as well, and visiting it is well worth the time.