Nova Shell Museum

Overview

The Nova Shell Museum is a privately operated seashell museum in Poblacion, Panglao, a few metres from the Panglao Public Market, holding one of the larger seashell collections anywhere. Quirino Hora built the collection himself, diving Bohol waters from the 1950s onward before opening the museum in 1983 — a private life’s-work collection rather than an institutional one.

Specimens sit on shelves labelled by place and date of collection, and the private guided tour supplies the stories a label can’t — where a given shell came from and why it mattered to Hora. Two species carry his name: Bursa quirihorai and Primovula horai, both discovered in Panglao waters, in 1987 and 1994 respectively.

The museum sits inside the Poblacion heritage cluster that gives Panglao town its layered history. A short walk away, the Panglao Watchtower — a five-storey hexagonal coral-stone structure built in 1851 and declared a National Cultural Treasure in 2011 — stands beside the St. Augustine Parish Church, whose construction ran from 1894 into the early 20th century; the raw, unfaced masonry visible on the church’s apse and transepts today is a leftover of that interrupted building process rather than later damage. Hora assembled his shell collection across the same decades that Panglao’s fishing and boat-building communities were working these waters commercially, and the museum’s founding in 1983 predates the beach-tourism boom on Alona Beach by only a few years — Panglao’s dive economy along that stretch traces to backpackers and small dive shops arriving in the early 1980s.

Location

Poblacion, Panglao, Bohol — a few metres from Panglao Public Market, near the Old Municipal Building, Panglao Watch Tower, and Ruins of Old Panglao Church. The cluster of heritage structures in Panglao Poblacion makes this a walkable multi-stop visit.

Getting There

From Tagbilaran City, take a jeepney or multicab to Panglao town (roughly 8–10 km). From Alona Beach, the town centre is about 7 km by tricycle or habal-habal. The museum is near the public market, which is a known local landmark. Street address: Teofilo Arcay St, Poblacion, Panglao.

Practical Info

• Founded: 1983 by Quirino Hora
• Collection: Assembled from the 1950s onward across Bohol waters and beyond
• Notable specimens: Bursa quirihorai (1987) and Primovula horai (1994), both named after the founder
• Tour format: Private guided tour — museum guide narrates the stories behind the shells
• Adjacent landmarks: Old Municipal Building, Panglao Watch Tower, Panglao Public Market
• Opening hours: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM (per one travel-guide source, which doesn’t specify which days of the week the museum is open) — call ahead or check locally before visiting
• Entrance fee: listed as free by one source, though a separate source cites ₱100 for adults — treat as unconfirmed pending a direct check
• The exact size of the collection isn’t published as a single verified figure, and on-site parking isn’t documented — check with the museum directly if parking is a concern

What to Expect

The shells are labelled by collection location and date, and the guided tour traces Hora’s own decades of diving across Philippine seas — the two species that carry his name are the collection’s centerpiece. The museum is compact; a visit typically runs 30–60 minutes.

Notes

• Pairs well with the nearby heritage cluster in Panglao Poblacion