Museo ni Jose Rizal

The first building you encounter upon entering the 10-hectare Rizal Shrine (site of national hero Jose Rizal’s exile from 1892 to 1896), immediately to the right, is the 2-storey, fairly new and modern Museo ni Jose Rizal which was originally built in 1971.

Check out “Rizal Park and Shrine“

The museum interior

The museum was later modernized (part of an overall plan to modernize around 15 more local museums nationwide, including those of Loay in Bohol, Iloilo City, Naga City, Baliuag in Bulacan, San Juan and Quezon City) by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), chaired by Dr. Maria Serena I. Diokno, and inaugurated on June 19, 2016 (the 155^th birth anniversary of Rizal).

Gallery 1: Pagtapon sa Dapitan (Exile to Dapitan)

Gallery 2: Gawaing Pang-Aghamat Sining ni Rizal (Rizal’s Scientific and Artistic Pursuits)

Gallery 3: Mga Alaala ng Dapitan (Memories of Dapitan)

Gallery 4: Landas Tungo sa Pagkamartir (Road to Martyrdom)

It now has an e-learning room for online lessons of the National Historical Commission on Philippine history plus a variety of interactive features such as light-and-sound tableaus, a holograms (showing him talking about his last thoughts as he treks the road to martyrdom) and touch screen terminals featuring Rizal’s everyday activities as a political exile in Dapitan.

Ang Dulce Extranjera ni Rizal

Ang Guro (The Teacher)

Audio visual presentations in the museum include the Talisay waterworks system (also known as the Linao Aqueduct) which Rizal surveyed and helped build with the blueprint he made. Rizal harnessed the natural spring of Linao Creek, giving the public a potable-water system. Later, he connected pipes to the aqueduct and, with his students, built the pipe works that served his household and farm needs.

Ang Inhinyero at Arkitekto (The Engineer and Architect)

Ang Magsasaka at Mangingisda (The Farmer and Fisherman)

The Museo ni Jose Rizal Dapitan has four galleries:

• Gallery 1. Exile to Dapitan
• Gallery 2. Rizal’s Scientific and Artistic Pursuits
• Gallery 3. Memories of Dapitan
• Gallery 4. Road to Martyrdom 

Clothes of Rizal

Prominently on display at the center of the ground floor are some of Rizal’s personal wardrobe – a beige long-sleeved shirt and trouser, a brown wool vest and trouser and a black textile coat.

Haec Est Sibylla Cumana

Four sets of Haec Est Sibylla Cumana, a book of oracle or “spin-the-top-and-learn-your-future” game created by Rizal in Dapitan, also occupy a prominent spot in the museum. A family heirloom, the book was only made public in 2011 (the 150th birth anniversary of the National Hero) upon publication by Cruz Publishing.

The blackboard and table Rizal used to teach his students

Nearby are the original blackboard, table and chairs used by Rizal for teaching his pupils at Casa Cuadrada.

List of animal specimens sent to Dresden, Germany

Shell collection

Some ethnographical material collected by Rizal

Also on display are all Rizal’s personal writings (books, letters, poems, etc.), periodicals, replicas of his artworks (including paintings of his wife Josephine Bracken), his tools for fishing, the original medical instruments used by Rizal in operating the cataracts of his mother, Teodora Alonso, and many other patients from far and wide plus other historical exhibits.

Ang Manggagamot (The Physician)

Mga Gawaing Pang Agham

There are also reproductions of old Rizal photographs including those of his lady loves – Leonor Rivera, Segunda Katigbak, Josephine Bracken, Gertrude Beckett, Nellie Boustead, O-Sei-San, Suzanne Jacoby.

Museum corner for Josephine Bracken

Reproductions of Rizal’s sculptures

Part of the building serves as the office of the Rizal Shrine Curator.  Nearby is a monument of Rizal erected on March 8, 1987 by the Order of the Knights of Rizal.

Ang Malikhaing Rizal (Artistic Rizal)

Ang Manunulat (The Writer)

Mga Gawaing Pang-Iskolar (Scholarly Activities)

Museo ni Jose Rizal: Brgy. Talisay, Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte. Open Tuesdays to Sundays, 8 AM to 5 PM. Mobile number: (0917) 656-4168. E-mail: museonijoserizaldapitan@gmail.com. Admission is free. Curator (since 1992): Gabriel M. Cad.

How to Get There: The museum is situated near the shrine’s main gate and the shrine is located 2 kms. from the Dapitan City Hall. The protected landscape and memorial is located some 9 kms. (5.6 mi.) north of the Dipolog Airport. It is accessible via the Dipolog–Oroquieta National Road and Jose Rizal Avenue in Dapitan.