Edifices of Love – Infrastructures That Are Made Out Of Love
There are various ways of how to show your love, especially for someone close to your heart. Perhaps, more often than not, you give gifts like chocolates, flowers, clothes, jewelries, and many other things just to symbolize or express your love.
As I write for a travel website, I research about tourist spots and famous landmarks. As I go on through my daily routine, I’ve discovered one thing common on three landmarks I’ve watched on TV and read on the Internet. These edifices are all made out of love, signifying the husband’s devotion to his wife. Surprisingly, all are found here in the Philippines.
Allow me to share with you just a brief story of these three edifices that might truly make you fall in love.
The Temple of Leah
People described it as a piece of Greek and a French structure with a touch of Taj Mahal. Undeniably, the feature of the Temple says it all. The huge Greek structure with gold giant lions, high pillars, mystic statues and similarity with the story of The Taj Mahal- it is a symbol of an undying love.
A very sweet testimony framed on the wall by Mr. Teodorico Adarna, the husband of Leah Villa Albino-Adarna to whom the temple is dedicated:
“I constructed this temple in the year 2012 A.D. as a symbol of my undying love for her and my ceaseless devotion to Leah Villa Albino-Adarna.”
The Temple of Leah was constructed in 2012 situated in Roosevelt Street, Barangay Busay, in the Queen City of the South- Cebu. The seven–storey mansion has an art gallery, museum and a library where all of his wife’s things are stored. The mind behind this temple is Mr. Teodorico Adarna, owner of Queensland Motels. The couple is married for 53 years until 2010 the wife passed away. More than the gigantic Roman temple that is very rare to be found in the Philippines is a breathtaking scenic view overlooking Cebu, one of the best attractions to visit in.
The San Juanico Bridge
It is the longest bridge in the Philippines over a body of seawater connecting Samar and Leyte. Well constructed using exemplary steel and concrete piers that makes it stand, useful and sturdy until today. This project is under the administration of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. The bridge gives a scenic and picture perfect view that amazes passers-by.
It is dubbed as “The Bridge of Love,” as the late president dedicated the bridge to his wife Imelda who is also known as the “Rose of Tacloban.” It served as a birthday gift and an attestation of his love for his wife.
The Ruins
An Italianate Style mansion built in 1900’s by the love of Sugar Baron, Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson, to his wife Maria Braga Lacson, a Portuguese from Macau. Located in Hacienda Sta.Maria, Talisay, Negros Occidental. Blessed with ten children, Mariano and Maria has been living happily until Maria became pregnant for their eleventh child. She slipped in the bathroom and started to bleed. At that time horse carriage is the only transportation to the town. After days of travel, when the doctor arrived, Maria and her baby were gone.
His undying love to his wife leads him to build a house for his unmarried children with the help of his father in law, until it became a two-storey mansion with an Italianate Architecture. Using grade A concrete and oversized twisted bars for its skeletal frame of structure, with finishing touches on the walls, the posts are mixture of pure concrete and with egg whites making a marble like finish as of today. Maria’s initials are molded on every post of the mansion. Two letter M are facing each other which stands for Mariano and Maria.
During the World War II, Don Mariano and their children left the house and the mansion was burned. The other parts of the house which were made out of wood took three days of burning. After the fire, the only parts left standing are the pillars and the staircase.
Beyond every physical steel, sturdy structural foundation and luscious finished there is a story to tell behind every pillars. The drama in every walls and the significance of every divisions makes these edifices worthy and important more than just a landmark of a place or a picturesque scene.
History and folk tales had gone through these three edifices. There are some absurd theories, but the only clear thing behind these structures is the devotion of undying love through the years.
