Rizal Shrine

Reconstructed ancestral home of national hero José Rizal

A handsome two-storey bahay na bato — stone base, wooden upper floor with capiz-shell windows — standing on the site where José Rizal was born on 19 June 1861. Inside you walk through the family's living quarters: the parents' bedroom, the dining room, Rizal's father's study, and the small room where the future national hero was born and baptised.

Display cases hold first editions of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, family letters, and a few personal effects. The garden behind the house has a well, a granary, and a few of the original mango trees the family planted. Free admission. Closed Mondays.

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A story
The original house was destroyed by American bombing in 1945. President Elpidio Quirino ordered it rebuilt in 1949–50 from old photographs and the recollections of Rizal's surviving siblings, down to the layout of the kitchen and the books on Rizal's father's shelves. It is faithful enough that visiting it feels less like a museum than a slightly preserved family home.