One thing parents do to enhance the ability of their children is to expose them to mind games. During my childhood, my toys include some sort of puzzles like having a plastic ball with holes of different shapes such as star, circle, rectangle and square wherein you need to shoot the corresponding plastic shapes to the holes. And the others were jigsaw. A relative of ours has this painting framed near their dining room which is actually a jigsaw puzzle. I was really amazed by the landscape on that puzzle.

I was more amazed when I found out from browsing online that a museum in Tagaytay was awarded by the Guinness World Records for having more than a thousand puzzles. The Puzzle Museum, owned and managed by Mrs. Gina Gil-Lacuna received the award from Guinness last November 29, 2012 for having the largest collection of puzzles by a singles person.

Her fascination on puzzles started way back in 1987 when she purchased her first ever puzzle. The 27-year old puzzle has an image of Mickey’s Racing Team which was solved with her son as inspiration. As a traveler, she buys puzzles to places she visits to serve as souvenirs. The collection piled up as she travels to different parts of the world.

The museum has a total of 1028+ puzzles. When asked how the record was got, she was curious then if Guinness has already awarded a record for having the largest number of puzzles in the world. From her research, Brazil holds the record for having only a 200+ puzzles. She knew that she can beat that record since she has already 800+ puzzles that moment. Before applying for Guinness, she added more to her collection making it to a thousand.

I was stunned to find out that the puzzles are not only 2-dimensional, some are 3D and even 4D at different sizes, prints and materials varying from different themes such as cartoon, famous paintings, maps, globes, advertisements and others. We were lucky enough to tour the museum with her discussing the story behind every puzzle she had solved. Samples of her 4D puzzles, which is a puzzle on a puzzle, are maps of Tokyo, Paris, and HongKong.

For 3 dimensional puzzles, globes, pyramids, cubes and animals. She has also an area for famous landmarks such as Sydney Opera House, Taj Mahal, Taipei 101, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel and Leaning Towers, Burj Al-arab, Florence Cathedral, St. Basil’s Cathedral, Colosseum and more.

On the other hand, for the 2D puzzles, works of renowned painters such as Leonardo da Vinci for Monalisa, Claude Monet for Nympheas, Pablo Picasso for Paul En Arlequin are also displayed in the museum. She has also a collection of Coca-Cola’s different advertisements from the past, and a Marilyn Monroe puzzle.

She also showed us the most difficult puzzle she had done. This puzzle depicts the painting Las Hilanderas done by a Spanish painter Diego Velazquez dated 1657 showing women workers in the tapestry workshop. The said puzzle has a total of 10000 pieces and took her a year to finish. On the other hand, the largest item on her collection at present is the Retablo De Santa Columba having a total of 18000 pieces. Last March 1, she already started the Double Retrospect by Keith Haring being distributed by Ravensburger at 17 feet x 6 feet and comprised of 32,256 pieces, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest jigsaw puzzle up to date.

When asked about her plans after the awarding of the Guinness record, her answer stated that she will continue to grow the number of puzzles in her museum to secure the award. She also added that she wants to own puzzles of the works of our renowned artists such as Juan Luna among others and accomplish 3D puzzles of the attractions found in the Philippines like the famous volcanoes Mayon and Taal.

You can also check my post about the Puzzle Mansion: Bed and Breakfast on how to get to Puzzle Mansion in Tagaytay.

PUZZLE MUSEUM

Purok 4 Cuadra, St. Barangay Asisan
Tagaytay City
thepuzzlemansion.com
Contact No.: 02-661-0019/ 0905-225-0229
puzzlemansion@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/PuzzleMansion