The Fort Santiago







Fort Santiago is located inside the walled city of Intramuros in Manila, strategically located near the mouth of the Pasig River just off Manila Bay. It is built by Spanish conquistador, Miguel López de Legazpi for the new established city of Manila in the Philippines. The defense fortress is part of the structures of the walled city of Manila referred to as Intramuros.




Fort Santiago is one of the most important historical sites in Manila. Several lives were lost in its prisons during the Spanish Colonial Period and World War II. José Rizal, one of the Philippine national heroes, was imprisoned here before his execution in 1896. The Rizal Shrine museum displays memorabilia of the hero in their collection and the fort features, embedded onto the ground in bronze, his footsteps representing his final walk from his cell to the location of the actual execution.


Rizal's Prison cell


The footsteps of Dr. Jose Rizal

This footprints embedded into the pavement marking his final steps to the exact location where he was executed in Rizal Park.


Fort Santiago has a perimeter of 2,030 feet (620 m), and it is of a nearly triangular form. The 22-foot (6.7 m) high walls, with a thickness of 8 feet (2.4 m) are pierced for the necessary communications. The front gateway façade measures 40 feet (12 m) high being in the south wall and facing the city.


Trivia: Fort Santiago was named after Saint James (Santiago in Spanish), the patron saint of Spain, who is also known as Saint James the Muslim-slayer






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo

Image
Noli me Tangere ( Touch Me Not ) is the first novel written by Filipino patriot and national hero Dr. José P. Rizal in 1887 during the colonization of the country by Spain to expose the inequities of the Spanish Catholic priests and the ruling government. The story line goes detailed with the society of the Philippines during Spanish colonial period and features aristocracy behind poverty and abuse of colonialists. In its publication, the novel caused an uproar among Filipino people that also felt Spanish abuse. Noli me Tangere was followed by its sequel, El Filibusterismo (1889) before common Filipinos crossed the borderline and started the infamous Philippine Revolution in 1896, some month's before Dr. Rizal's execution. El Filibusterismo ( The Reign of Greed ) is the second novel written by Philippine national hero José Rizal. It is the sequel to Noli me tangere and, like the first book, was written in Spanish. It consist of 38 chapters The novel
Read more

Rizal's museum inside The Fort Santiago

Image
Dr. Jose Rizal's clothes  A relic of Rizal's vertebra where the fatal bullet struck him. Mi Ultimo Adios ( My Last Farewell ) is a poem written by Dr. Jose Rizal on the eve of his execution by firing squad on December 30, 1896. The alcohol stove pictured above was given by the Pardo de Tavera family to him which he used throughout his imprisonment. Here, he carefully hid Mi Ultimo Adios later to be found by his family. It is one of the last notes he wrote before his execution. The other one was hidden in his shoe but because the text was illegible, its contents remain a mystery until today. In this cell Jose Rizal was detained prisoner from 3 November to the morning of 29 December 1896 falsely charged with rebellion, sedition and formation of illegal societies. After the reading of the court sentence at 6:00 A.M. 29 December, he was kept in an improvised chapel until his execution at 7:03 A.M. 30 December 1896 on the Luneta, Bagumbayan Field, Man
Read more

Old site of Ateneo de Manila

Image
Here once stood the Ateneo de Manila . Founded in 1817 as Escuela Pia de Manila. Administered by government in 1813 and renamed Escuela Municipal de Manila. Turned over to the Jseuits in 1859. Renamed Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1865. Exclusive ownership given to Jesuits in 1901. Name shortened to Ateneo de Manila. Gutted by fire in 1932. Grade school rebuilt in Intramuros while the rest of the campus moved to Ermita, Manila. Destroyed during world war II. Moved to Loyola Heights, Quezon city in 1952. Ateneo de Manila has two other campuses, in Rockwell Center and Salcedo Village, both in Makati, house the university's professional schools of business, law, and government. A fourth facility in the Don Eugenio López Sr. Medical Complex in Ortigas Center, Pasig, houses its school of medicine and public health. Trivia: Ateneo is the third-oldest university in the Philippines.
Read more