The Legendary House OF Our National Hero

(The Rizal's Home)

Home is a place where love, support, and comfort grow. It is not just a place where we can eat and
sleep. It is where the values and foundation of nurture began, and it is where we find and build
ourselves from the very beginning. A place to build memories as well as a way to build a future wealth.

Jose Rizal was born in the City of Calamba in Laguna province. Rizal's home was a two-story Spanish
colonial house that is built during the Spanish colonial era. It is made up of stones, thus having the name
'bahay na bato'.

It was said that it took two years for Don Francisco Mercado, Rizal's father, to build the first 'bahay na
bato' in Calamba. Its floor was made of lime and stone, and its upper storey was of the best hardwood
which is narra and molave logs that were selected from the Makiling forest with the supervised cutting
of Don Francisco. And lastly, the tiles of the roof was color red.

Rizal's home was located near the church and town plaza. During Rizal's childhood years, he would
play in their orchard and listen to his mother's stories on the azotea where the water well is located. The
kitchen was the place where he learned the alphabet, and in his room together with his brother Paciano,
he learned his prayers. And lastly, in his father's library, he learned his first Latin together with a tutor.

We can clearly see how Rizal's home help him grow and made him into the man that he is. It is where
he learned many things that shaped him. Though their original house was destroyed during World War
II, it was rebuilt at the same site on June 19, 1950.

Now, their home is one of the visited tourist spot in Calamba. Rizal's belongings are kept intact inside
the shrine and there are trivias written on the walls, and the the rooms are carefully reconstructed and
presented the way it is when Rizal used to lived there in the late 1800s. The Rizal Shrine doesnt have an
entrance fee, but donations are accepted. It is located in the middle of Calamba City along Mercado and
Rizal Street.