CURRIMAO town in Ilocos Norte, about 465 kilometers northwest of Manila, is a bucolic place near the northern border town of Paoay, where the historic church is?an unrivalled Unesco World Heritage site.

On its eastern border is Badoc town, where the Lunas?painter Juan, general Antonio, and the first Ilocano violinist, Manuel?came from.

In Victoria village in Currimao, you find a beach resort like no other, a virtual heritage village reflecting the rich culture of Ilocos Norte. This amazing recreation of a mid-20th century Ilocos Norte village, sitting on an 18,000-square meter lot, is called Sitio Remedios. It is owned by Doctor Joven Cuanang, medical director of St. Luke?s Hospital.

For the renowned neurologist, the place is both a refuge from his hectic Manila work as well as his own storehouse of childhood memory.

He was the youngest of three children, born in Batac town to a couple named Remedios (for whom the resort is named) and Mariano. They were both public-school teachers.

Main attraction

Cuanang?s memory included leisurely walks and bicycle rides to and from school in Batac, reciting the poems of Longfellow, playing ?Love and Devotion? and ?Noche Azul? on the family?s upright piano, and weekends on Currimao beach.

Sitio Remedios? main attraction are its rows of vintage-style Ilocano houses named after several Ilocos towns: Balay Batac, Balay Dingras, Balay Radrillo, Balay Puraw, Balay Piddig, Balay Bacarra and Balay San Nicolas.

A room in Balay Piddig is named after pianist Cecile Licad, who inaugurated the place in May 2006. I still can?t forget the sight of Cecile playing a Mozart Fantasy with a view of a tranquil Currimao sea in the background.

In another house is the Manny Garibay mural of ?El Vibora,? depicting the bravery of General Artemio Ricarte. In the living room on the second floor, you see portraits of Juan and Antonio Luna.

Balay Piddig also has the upright piano that used to occupy the doctor?s ancestral house in Batac. The house comes complete with his parents? wedding picture, retouched and given a new look by Bencab.

Rescuing houses

The idea for a heritage resort started on December 31, 2005, when, on his birthday, Cuanang fantasized about a place where he could nurture and preserve Ilocos heritage while reliving landmarks of his Batac childhood.

Intently listening was architect Rex Hofileña, who gave him the next day a sketch of his idea for the place. They set about rescuing old Ilocano houses about to be demolished in various parts of the province so as to preserve them at Sitio Remedios.

Cuanang then used his prized collection of family heirlooms, antique furniture, locally woven white cotton linens and paintings from his Manila galleries as materials for interior décor. The result is an evocative replica of a quaint Ilocano community in the ?50s.

?What I have done is just preserve my Ilocano heritage for all the world to see,? said Cuanang.

The resort has become a virtual cultural center on this part of Ilocos Norte. After Licad opened it with a recital in 2006, Raul Sunico and violinist Coke Bolipata followed. Historical lectures are also conducted in a hall called Centro Ilocos de Juan Luna.

Everything you encounter in Sitio Remedios is part and parcel of Cuanang?s memory of his parents and of a genteel, long-gone Ilocano era.