AT A GLANCE
Why go?
The Ayala Museum is Manila's preeminent private museum for Philippine history, art, and material culture. Set in a striking granite-and-glass tower in the heart of Makati's Ayala Center, it houses more than a thousand pre-colonial gold treasures, sixty handcrafted dioramas tracing Filipino history from prehistoric times to the 1986 People Power Revolution, and a rich collection of paintings by the country's most celebrated artists. Reopened in December 2021 after a two-year renovation, the museum continues to be one of the most rewarding cultural stops in Metro Manila.↗↗↗
A Tower of History in the Heart of Makati
The Ayala Museum was first envisioned in the 1950s by Fernando Zobel de Ayala y Montojo, one of the Philippines' most important abstract painters, and established in April 1967 under the patronage of what is now the Ayala Foundation. After decades in earlier buildings, the museum moved in 2004 to its current six-story home on the same site in Makati's Ayala Center, designed by Leandro Y. Locsin Jr., son of National Artist Leandro Locsin, whose earlier design housed the museum from 1974 to 2001. The building's bold geometry of granite, steel, and glass stands beside Greenbelt Park and is surrounded by the glass towers of Makati's business district — a fitting juxtaposition of the country's past and its economic present.