National Museum of the Philippines - Bohol

Overview

The National Museum of the Philippines – Bohol, also known as the Bohol Area Museum, occupies the former Provincial Capitol Building on Carlos P. Garcia Avenue, Tagbilaran City. The building served as the seat of Bohol’s provincial government until the October 2013 earthquake, which damaged much of the province’s older masonry stock and left the capitol unusable. Joint retrofitting and conservation work by the National Museum and the provincial government converted the damaged capitol into the regional museum, reopened 22 July 2023.

The museum sits within the National Museum of the Philippines network of regional, area, and site museums — the same institutional network responsible for heritage sites across the country. Admission is free.

Location

The museum is at the Old Bohol Capitol, Carlos P. Garcia Avenue, Barangay Poblacion II, Tagbilaran City. The building is a notable heritage structure in the city centre, near Alturas Mall and Alta Citta Mall.

Getting There

The museum is within Tagbilaran City and reachable by tricycle or on foot from the city centre. Tagbilaran is served by domestic flights and regular ferry connections from Cebu and other Visayan ports.

From the Tagbilaran port or airport, take a tricycle to the Old Bohol Capitol on Carlos P. Garcia Avenue.

[TO ENRICH: Walking time from the port and airport, and specific tricycle fares require verification.]

Practical Info

• Address: Old Bohol Capitol, Carlos P. Garcia Avenue, Poblacion II, Tagbilaran City
• Admission: Free
• Opened (current use): 22 July 2023
• Supervising agency: National Museum of the Philippines

[TO ENRICH: Opening hours, rest days, and contact details require verification.]

What to Expect

The exhibits cover prehistoric finds recovered from Bohol’s caves, Boholano cultural and historical artifacts, natural-heritage material on the Chocolate Hills’ geological formation, and work by National Artist Napoleon Abueva, a Boholano sculptor. The building itself functions as an exhibit — a retrofitted early 20th-century provincial capitol, now load-tested and repaired rather than replaced.

Between the caves, the geology, and the sculpture, the museum covers ground the island’s churches and natural-attraction circuit don’t: how Bohol’s history reads before and alongside its Spanish-colonial layer.

Notes

• Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_the_Philippines_%E2%80%93_Bohol
• Source: https://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/our-museums/regional-area-and-site-museums/bohol/