Rajeev's World

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Fort Santiago - In The Footsteps Of José Rizal...

Exploring Intramuros brought me to Fort Santiago, the citadel first built by the Spanish conquistador, Miguel López de Legazpi in the 1570s to guard the new established city of Manila.

Passing by the Manila Cathedral again...

We pass by a horse drawn carriage decked up for a wedding on our way to Fort Santiago...

The fort was named after Saint James the Great (who was known as Santiago in Spanish). James was the patron saint of Spain...

A bridge across the moat leads us in...

A view of downtown Manila...

A relief of Saint James the Great on the facade of the gate. He is especially famous for ridding the Iberian peninsula of Islamic invaders from North Africa...

A plaque commemorating the restoration of the gate...

The first fort built in in 1571 was a structure of palm logs and earth. However most of it was destroyed when the city was invaded by Chinese pirates led by Limahong. The fort was restored in 1714 and that's when the gate with relief of Saint James was constructed...

Heading inside - the fort was the scene of conflict when the British invaded Manila in 1762 and then again during the Second World War when during Japanese, it served as a prison for POWs and also suffered heavy bombardment from the American and Filipino forces...

A cannon from yesteryears...

A procession of priests...

A statue representing the Filipino President Manual Quezon and the United States Army General, Douglas MacArthur...

Posing with the liberators...

The Rizal Shrine within the Fort...

Heading up to the wall by the Pasig River...

Flame trees or gulmohurs, as we call them in India, in full bloom...

This is the courtyard where José Rizal was executed by a firing squad...

José Rizal wan ophthalmologist by profession but he became a writer and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement which advocated political reforms.

He was executed by the Spanish colonial government in 1896 for inciting rebellion after an anti-colonial revolution, inspired in part by his writings, broke out. He was just 35. Today he is regarded as a national hero...

The Pasig,,,

The dungeons here were where American POWs were kept during the Second World War, Living conditions were poor and many of them died...

In memory of the victims...

This was probably an armoury...

A part of the Fort is now a golf course...

Overlooking the Rizal shrine...

Bamboos from Philippines, China and Japan...

There stands Rizal, honoured by Filipino flags fluttering in the freedom of the breeze...

Rizal...

These footsteps trace the path of José Rizal as he was led to his execution, here in Fort Santiago, on December 30, 1896...

Looking back, as I head back...

...I was indeed surprised, pleasantly surprised, that Philippines also did have a rich history, that the country is still proud of, to this day!

Saint Agustin - A Gem Of Intramuros...

After a great Pinoy lunch at Barbara's, we headed to visit a prominent landmark of Intramuros - the San Agustin Church or the Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepción de María de San Agustín. San Agustin was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, alongwith three other Philippine churches constructed during the Spanish colonial period, under the collective title Baroque Churches of the Philippines.

Ornately carved door...

The first church on this site was constructed by the Spaniards in 1571 and was incidentally the first religious structure constructed by the Spaniards in Luzon. It was a rather simple structure made of bamboo and nipa, but it was destroyed by fire in December 1574 when Chinese pirates invaded Manila.

A second church, again made of wood was constructed on the site. This structure was destroyed in February 1583, by a fire that started when a candle set ablaze the drapes during the interment of the Spanish Governor-General Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa.

To ensure durability of the structure, the Augustinians rebuilt the church with stone. Construction began in 1586, using hewn adobe stones quarried from Meycauayan, Binangonan and San Mateo, Rizal. The work was slow due to the lack of skilled labour, funds and materials. The church-monastery complex was operational by 1604.

San Agustin Church was looted during the British occupation of Manila in 1762. In 1854, the church was renovated, But in 1863 and 1880, earthquakes hit Manila leaving widespread destruction to the city with San Agustin Church, the only public building left relatively undamaged. In 1880, however, the tremors left a huge crack on the left bell tower of the church. The crack was repaired, but the left tower was permanently removed which makes the church a bit distinctive - it has only one bell tower, the one on the right.

On August 18, 1898, the church was where Spanish Governor-General Fermin Jaudenes prepared the terms for the surrender of Manila to the United States following the Spanish–American War.

During the Second World War, the Japanese turned the San Agustin Church into a concentration camp for prisoners. In the final days of the Battle of Manila, hundreds of Intramuros residents and clergy were held hostage in the church by Japanese soldiers during the three-week-long battle.

The church itself survived the devastation that Intramuros saw when the combined American and Filipino ground forces regained control of the city in May 1945. The adjoining monastery however was totally destroyed, and was rebuilt in the 1970s as a museum.