Provincial Capitol Lagoon, Bacolod City

 The Provincial Capitol and its adjacent lagoon (simply called the Lagoon), is one of the most splendid of all provincial capitols in the Philippines. Even the famous architect, Leandro Locsin calls it the most beautiful capitol because of its symmetry and layout. Accentuated by the cool waters of the lagoon, this complex is made more stunning during sunset when the sun strikes its golden rays to the water and when the orange glow fills the 2nd floor gallery of the Capitol.

History showed that the building was planned by Daniel Burnham and designed by Juan Arellano.  The entire building took a decade to be built during the prewar years and this was done in the Neo-Classical style of architecture as favored by our American colonial masters. The four statues adorning the area above the Corinthian columns were attributed to Italian artist Francesco Monti.

The two concrete carabao statues straddle the north-south pole of the Lagoon. The Northern statue which envisaged a 30's coiffed Filipina sidling with a carabao is attributed to Monti since he has an exact small replica of the said statue at the UP Los Banos School of Agriculture. The Southern statue meanwhile sports a nude male pulling a carabao, which is attributed to Arellano (but I am not sure if Mapua had a hand in this).

Currently, the capitol houses the offices of the governor while the Lagoon serves as a recreational park for the populace.