Sala Mayor

The sala mayor, sometimes known as the salon de baile, is the main living room traditionally reserved for big parties known as bailes. The Museo de La Salle’s sala mayor is inspired by the colors of the Spanish flag -- red and gold, lavishly done in the late 1880s style. Its decoration is influenced by the Spanish ayuntamiento or city hall. The walls are hand-painted in traditional Spanish Victorian motif, and its ceiling is of hand-painted canvas featuring birds of the Philippines. The central doors, with carved Prince-of-Wales crests, are in solid bandejas and draped with heavy Italian damask curtains accented by European tassels.

The furniture collection features a 20-piece Carlos XIII central conference suite, gilded Venetian mirrors, Vienna bentwood pieces, an 1837 French brevete harp, marble-top round tables, and several mariposa sofas. Traditionally, the chairs and tables were made of light materials which can be moved to the sides during bailes (dances).

Planks of the local hardwood balayong and narra, which could be pierced by ordinary nails, make up the woodwork. Instead of nails, pegs, dowels, and tongue-and-groove were used to secure the wood in place.

Also in the sala are 19^th century oil portraits of Don Jose Leon Santos (1887) and Doña Ramona Joven (1882) by painter Simon Flores y de la Rosa, a miniaturist and portrait artist. Simon Flores, who studied at the Academia De Dibujo y Pintura, was the first Filipino of native blood, to win a prize from an international competition. In 1876, he was awarded a silver medal by the Philadelphia Universal Exposition for his painting La Musica del Pueblo.