Rocha-Suarez House

Overview

Rocha-Suarez House is a heritage structure in Barangay Poblacion I, Tagbilaran City, Bohol, built around 1840, and recorded both in the provincial tourist-attraction inventory (History and Culture — Unique Cultural Heritage) and in the Philippines’ national list of cultural properties. It stands in the historic downtown precinct alongside Reyes House (Tandoc House) and Beldia House/Villa Mercedes — three of Tagbilaran’s surviving 19th-century bahay na bato residences, each documenting a different decade of the city’s Spanish-colonial domestic architecture (Rocha-Suarez c.1840, Rocha House 1831, Beldia House 1858).

[TO ENRICH: Rocha and Suarez family histories, current condition and use, accessibility — the national cultural-properties listing confirms the construction date but not further architectural or ownership detail.]

Location

Barangay Poblacion I, Tagbilaran City, Bohol. The house is in the historic core of the city near Plaza Rizal Park and St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral.

Getting There

Tagbilaran City is accessible by air (Bohol–Panglao International Airport, on neighbouring Panglao Island) and sea (Tagbilaran seaport). Poblacion I is the downtown district, reachable on foot or by tricycle from the seaport or city bus terminal.

Practical Info

[TO ENRICH: visitor access, opening hours, any entrance fee, guided heritage walk availability.]

What to Expect

A colonial-era residential structure in the historic centre of Tagbilaran. Part of a cluster of heritage houses in Poblacion I that document the city’s built history from the Spanish colonial and American Commonwealth periods.

[TO ENRICH: physical description — number of storeys, building materials (wood, stone, concrete), facade details, interior access for visitors.]

Notes

• Listed in BPTO provincial tourist-attraction inventory (BPTO Table 11, 2025).
• Nearby heritage: Reyes House (Tandoc House), Beldia House/Villa Mercedes, St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral.
• A heritage walking route through Poblacion I connects multiple listed structures.
• Construction date (c.1840) per the List of Cultural Properties of the Philippines in Tagbilaran, Wikipedia, accessed 2026-07-17.