The Secrets Of Fort Santiago

Fort Santiago

          
            Fort Santiago is a defense fortress built for Spanish conquistador, Miguel López de Legazpi. The fort is part of the structures of the walled city of Intramuros, in Manila, Philippines. José Rizal, the Philippines' national hero, was imprisoned in the fort before his execution in 1896. the site features, embedded onto the ground in bronze, his final footsteps representing the walk from his cell to the location of the actual execution.

            Fort Santiago, a 16th century military defense structure, stands witness to the valor and heroism of the Filipino through the centuries.Adaptive use of this famous historical landmark makes certain areas ideal for open air theater,picnics,and promenades. The Intramuros Visitors center gives an overview of the various attractions in the walled city.

            The fort is shielded by 22 feet (6.7 m)-high walls, with a thickness of 8 feet (2.4 m) and an entrance measuring 40 feet (12 m) high. It is located at the mouth of the Pasig River and it once served as the premier defense fortress of the Spanish Government in the Philippines. During World War II it was captured by the Japanese, and sustained heavy damage from American and Filipino mortar shells during the Battle of Manila in February 1945.
          
             It was later restored by the Intramuros Administration during the 1980s. Today the fort serves as a museum which houses well-preserved legacies of the Spanish government, José Rizal, Rizal Shrine, and the prison dungeons for criminals used by the Spanish officials.

            "Now Fort Santiago is considered one of many tourist attraction in Manila."

source: wiki

Intramuros: The Historic Walled City of Manila

Intramuros Redoubt

                 Intramuros is the historic centre and oldest district of Manila,

Also known as "The Walled City" because of its most famous feature: a nearly three-mile-long circuit of massive stone walls and fortifications that almost completely surrounds the entire district.
From the city's foundation in 1571 to the end of Spanish rule in 1898, Intramuros was Manila.
               The Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi laid the foundations of the new capital on the former site of Maynilad, a palisaded riverside settlement ruled by a native chieftain. To protect the inhabitants from attack, in the late 1500s construction began on a series of stone walls and fortifications that would eventually enclose a pentagonal area approximately 0.67 sq km in size, within which lay a tight grid-like system of streets and a main square surrounded by government structures. The defensive curtain was more or less completed by the 1700s, although improvements and other construction work continued well into the next century.
                Within the protective walls rose a city of stone palaces, churches, monasteries, convents, schools, and fine courtyard houses. In the centuries that followed, Manila (meaning Intramuros) served as the capital of the Spanish East Indies - the centre of commerce, education, government, and religion in Spain's most distant imperial possession. 

 Attraction:

Fort Santiago

Fort Santiago.
         The former military headquarters of the Spanish colonial government. It is now considered a major landmark and one of Manila's most popular tourist attractions, partly because José Rizal - the national hero of the Philippines - was imprisoned here prior to his execution on 30 Dec 1896. The Rizal Shrine, a small museum dedicated to his life and work, is housed in a restored section of one of the fort's former barracks.

Manila Cathedral

Manila Cathedral
          The Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila,destroyed and rebuilt several times over, and one of the most important churches in the Philippines. The current Neo-Romanesque iteration - to stand on the site since 1581, succeeding the 19th-century structure that was levelled to the ground during the 1945 Battle of Manila. A small exhibit detailing the Cathedral's history can be found in one of the side chapels near the entrance.

Baluarte de San Diego

Baluarte de San Diego,
           Dating from the 17th century, this formidable bastion surrounds the remains of the round fort of Nuestra Señora de Guia, the first stone fort built in Manila. Severely damaged during the Second World War, the Baluarte de San Diego was restored in the 1980s and is now a major tourist attraction.

Museum

San Agustín Museum,
           This museum is adjacent to the San Agustín Church, collection includes Spanish colonial-era ecclesiastical vestments, sacred vessels, religious art, manuscripts, and other important cultural artifacts. The building itself is steeped in history, fashioned out of the surviving portions of a monastery that was heavily damaged during the Second World War.

Palacio del Gobernador
          This eight-storey office building was erected in the late 1970s on the site of the Spanish Governor-General's official residence, which was destroyed in a powerful 1863 earthquake that also damaged many other structures in Intramuros., the modern building looks absolutely nothing like its 19th-century namesake.

           "If you want to know more about how to go to this historic place of Intramuros, you can visit this site http://wikitravel.org/en/Intramuros ."

Reasons Why You Should Visit Manila

'Rizal Monument'

Rizal Park (also known as Luneta Park)
                is an urban and historical park located in the northern end of Roxas Boulevard, alongside Manila Bay, in the heart of the city of Manila, Philippines.
Luneta has been the site of some of the most significant moments in Philippine history . Among them is the execution of José Rizal on December 30, 1896, sparking the fire of the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish colonizers, elevating the martyr as the national hero of the country.

'picnic at the park'

 Attractions:
            The park is a local spot for families to have picnics on Sundays and holidays and one of the major tourist attractions of Manila. It has a small man-made lake with a relief map of the Philippine archipelago in the middle. The park has recreational value as well as bands, orchestras and other forms of entertainment are provided for free in the open-air auditorium, aptly called "Concert at the Park". Other famous attractions include Department of Tourism Building, the National Museum of the Philippines and the Manila Planetarium.

           The park is home to various Kali/Eskrima/Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) groups. Every morning, especially on Sundays, Eskrimadors, or Eskrima practitioners can be seen at Luneta. Even up to the present, stickfighting duels are still very common, albeit in a friendly atmosphere.

Other attractions and landmarks include:
• Chinese Garden. An ornate Chinese-style gate, carved with swirling dragons, leads you into this whimsical garden which looks like it has been transported from old Peking. Along the lagoon constructed to simulate a small lake, are pagodas and gazebos that are set off by red pillars and green-tiled roofs and decorated with a profusion of mythical figures.
• Japanese Gardens. The gardens were built to promote friendship between Japan and the Philippines. Inside is nice place for pleasant walks around the Japanese style gardens, lagoon and bridge. Plenty of couples frequented the place for dating.
• National Library of the Philippines is the country´s premier public library. The library has a history of its own and its rich Filipiniana collections are maintained by the librarians to preserve the institution as the nations fountain of local knowledge and source of information for thousands of students and everyday users in their research and studies.
• Orchidarium and Butterfly Pavilion, established in 1994, was a former parking lot developed into a one-hectare rainforest-like park. The Orchidarium showcases Philippines' rich collection of orchid species and butterflies. The pavilion is also a favorite venue for weddings.
• Lapu-Lapu Monument (or the Statue of the Sentinel of Freedom). The monument was a gift from the people of Korea as appreciation and to honor the memory of freedom-loving Filipinos who helped during the Korean War in the early 1950s (as inscribed in the plaque).
• Diorama of Rizal's Martrydom. On an area north of Rizal monument stands a set of statues depicting Rizal's execution, situated on the spot where he was actually martyred, contrary to popular belief that the monument is the spot where he was executed.
• Kilometer Zero. The marble marker designated as KM 0 fronting the Rizal Monument is considered Kilometer Zero for road distances on the island of Luzon and the rest of the Philippines.

"It's a wonderful experience when we visit such historical places like Rizal Park."

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