NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

1928-1939
In 1928, the National Museum of the Philippine Islands
was created and placed under the Department of
Agriculture and Natural Resources, and housed in a
building in the Port Area adjacent to the Manila Hotel.
The National Library was also established as a separate
institution. The Museum consisted of the Ethnology
Division and the Division of History and Fine Arts (the
Division of Natural Science was not included in the
organization). However, this was reversed in 1933, when
the Division of Fine Arts was transferred to the National
Library, and the Division of Ethnology and the Division of
Anthropology, which included archaeology, ethnography
and physical anthropology, were combined with the
sections of natural history of the Bureau of Science and
organized into the National Museum Division of the
Bureau of Science. In 1939, the National Museum
Division was renamed the Natural History Museum
Division of the Bureau of Science under the office of the
Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce.
NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF FINE ARTS
In February 1945 the Japanese forces used
the building and its premises as their
stronghold and modified it with their
defensive installations. Obstacles,
roadblocks, trenches, pillboxes and barbed
wires surrounded the building. Guns and
other heavy machine guns were strategically
installed on the building floors. For several
days until February 27 the American forces
bombarded the building with artillery fire.
The building’s north and south wings were
heavily damaged.
 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
The building was rebuilt in 1949, maintaining its original building footprint
and four-story height, but with less ornate façade articulation. The four-
story building has a rectangular plan and layout oriented with its line of
symmetry in an east-west axis, longitude in a north-south axis, and its
main entrances on the east and the west. The building’s central core
spaces are flanked by courtyards north and south. The associated rooms
are organized around these courtyards with single volume hallways east
and west, and double volume hallways north and south. Staircases are at
both ends of the entrance halls, and the four corners of the building.
On September 30, 2010, by virtue of Republic Act 10096 vesting the
power to declare historical landmarks to the National Historical
Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), the building was declared as a
National Historical Landmark under Resolution No. 8 dated September 30,
2010. The declaration is an act of honoring the significance of the
building as witness to various political historical milestones of the country
such as the Constitutional Convention in 1934, inauguration of Presidents
namely Manuel L. Quezon of the Commonwealth government in 1935,
Jose P. Laurel during the Japanese-sponsored government in 1943, and
Manuel Roxas of the Commonwealth government in 1946. During the
Martial Law in 1972, it was used as an Executive House of the Prime
Minister and eventually became offices of various government branches.
A marker commemorating the declaration was unveiled on October 29,
2010.
NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF FINE ARTS
• As the present National Museum of Fine Arts, new
additions north and south of the building footprint serve
as the museum building’s administrative offices, and
public spaces. Sculptures accentuates the building’s
grounds and open spaces. The open spaces east of the
building serve as a visual corridor where one can enjoy
the perspectives of the surrounding urban spaces and the
other neo-classical building across the road, the present
National Museum of Anthropology (former Department
of Finance Building).
• Today, the building as the National Museum of Fine
Arts, is a home to 29 galleries and hallway exhibitions
comprising of 19th century Filipino masters, National
Artists, leading modern painters, sculptors, and
printmakers. Also on view are art loans from other
government institutions, organizations, and individuals.
 NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF ANTHROPOLOGY
In last days of the Second World War’s Battle of Manila, the
Department of Finance Building along with the Legislative Building
served as part of the Japanese defensive installations. For seven days
(from February 25 until March 3) the American forces bombarded the
building with heavy artillery fire. The stability of reinforced concrete
buildings to withstood impact force of artillery fire and bombardment
were tested such that the building’s northeast walls and roofs
disintegrated, settled and bent. The building was heavily devastated.

The building was rebuilt in 1949, maintaining its original building footprint and
five story height. The five-story building has an odd trapezium plan with a
chamfer at its northeast obtuse vertex and a concave side on its southeast
fronting the rotonda. A ground level approach on a driveway protected by a
three-arched porte cochere serves as the entrance at the chamfered northeast
corner of the building. Halls and rooms are orthogonally arranged around the
central courtyard of the same trapezium shape.
NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF ANTHROPOLOGY
The façades are articulated with giant Corinthian columns
and pilasters rising from the second floor level to the height
of the three stories of the building, with the first story
resembling the one-story high plinth where these columns
and pilasters rest.
Decorative entablatures lie above the columns and pilasters
surrounding the entire wall. The exterior walls have incised
masonry joint pattern that provide a sense of scale and
texture. Rhythmic fenestrations reverberate with arched
and rectangular openings. Arched windows are on the
second story, and rectangular windows on the rest, are all
decorated with ornate grillework. Pairs of giant Corinthian
columns framing a two-story high arched window reinforce
the corners of the building. A modest pediment accentuates
the chamfered corner entrance.
 NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF ANTHROPOLOGY
• As the present National Museum of Anthropology, the new additions on
the east and west of the original building footprint serve as additional
spaces for the museum building’s utilities. A grand stairway as broad as
the concave southeast façade serves as the main access rising up to the
columned portico on the second floor level. The columned portico
features six fluted columns with Corinthian capitals. Four arched openings
are distributed alternately with rectangular windows in the seven bays of
the southeast entrance wall. From the columned porticoes, a splendid
view of Luneta can be enjoyed apart from the sights, silhouettes and
remnants of Beaux Arts architecture of the other monumental building.
• Classic symmetry is best exemplified in the architecture of the two
identical buildings designed by Antonio Mañalac Toledo. The Old
Department of Finance Building and the Old Department of Agriculture
and Commerce Building are laid out with the line of symmetry along the
east-west axis of the Agrifina Rotunda (or Agrifina Circle) in Luneta. The
two buildings face each other in mirror image, an ensemble of neoclassic-
inspired buildings. Envisioned then to be the National Museum Complex,
by virtue of Republic Act 8492 in 1998, the first stage of the National
Museum complex was realized with the formal inauguration of the
Museum of the Filipino People in the converted Old Finance Building, a
key part of official commemoration of the centennial of Philippine
independence that culminated on June 12, 1998.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF
NATURUAL HISTORY

The building was constructed as the

Agriculture and Commerce Building in 1940
and designed in neoclassical style by Filipino
Architect Antonio Toledo in the late 1930s,
having the same dimension and floor plan as
its twin building located at the northern side
of the circle, the Finance Building.
 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF
NATURUAL HISTORY
The Department of Agriculture and Commerce building was among the
government buildings reconstructed in 1949, under the government’s
post-war rehabilitation work program. In February 1945 the American
forces bombarded the building with heavy artillery fire (from February
25 until February 28), concentrated on the ground floor until the lower
sections have been pulverized and the upper sections settled on the
ground.
Symmetrical with the Department of Finance Building, the five-story
Department of Agriculture and Commerce Building has an odd
trapezium plan with a chamfer at its southeast obtuse vertex and a
concave side on its northwest fronting the rotonda. A ground level
approach on a driveway protected by a three-arched porte
cochere serves as the entrance at the chamfered southeast corner of
the building. Halls and rooms are orthogonally arranged around the
central courtyard of the same trapezium shape. A modest pediment
accentuates the chamfered corner entrance.
 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF
NATURUAL HISTORY
the building reconstruction using the adaptive reuse
architecture or the restoration of an old building to convert
it into a space for something other than its original purpose
commenced in 2013. What used to be a building occupied
by the Department of Tourism is now home to displays of
diverse botanical, zoological, and geological collections of
the country.
As the present National Museum of Natural History, the
recent new additions on the east and west of the original
building footprint, and on top of the original building
height, serve as the museum building’s facilities, offices and
public spaces. The metal-framed glass dome known as the
“Tree of Life” now covers the central courtyard. The open
spaces southeast of the building serve as a visual corridor
where one can enjoy the perspectives of the surrounding
urban spaces and the other neo-classical buildings.
 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF
NATURUAL HISTORY
Prior to its public opening, on June 28, 2016, the
National Museum of Natural History was initially
launched through the ceremonial turnover of the Tree of
Life, which was unveiled by President Benigno Aquino III
through his cabinet secretaries as representatives. On
May 18, 2018, highlighting the International Museum
Day celebration, the long time coming National Museum
Complex was finally realized through the public opening
of the National Museum of Natural History. It has the
concept of presenting its collections from the mountain
to the sea, which are exhibited through interactive
displays, video guides, diagrams, and illustrations
integrated to zoological, botanical, and geological
specimens on display at the 12 galleries and its
halls. Today, it has been one of the most visited
educational tourist destinations in Metro Manila.