Museo Iloilo

The museum's permanent exhibit covers cultural heritage of Iloilo and Panay from weaponries and armories during the Filipino-Spanish war in the 1800s, to stone-age potteries and traded potteries from China and Thailand, sculptures in the Spanish era, jars and ceramics during the Japanese invasion, fossils, and jewelries. Parts of a British sunken ship and war remnants are also good finds inside the museum. In addition, they have a selection of priceless cultural bits and pieces such as relics and modern religious images of saints and old churches depicting the unwavering religious spirit of the Hiligaynon people.[1]

Since Iloilo has a number of baroque churches and the people are known to have a strong faith, the section of the museum also displays different sizes of religious figures. The image below is a late 18th-century high relief carving in hardwood, originally polychromed and showing traces of gesso. The relief depicts the conversion of San Agustin, a heretic, to Christianity. The scene shows the penitent convert before the crucified Christ with Sta. Monica, shown with a bare breast, probably recalling how she nourished her son with her milk.[2]