Trifter

Superb. Fantastic. Marvelous. Wonderful. Magnificent.

These are the adjectives we usually hear when somebody describes Intramuros, but when we walked its ancient streets, visited its casas and museums, and surveyed its crumbling ruins, we realized that these are all understatements, not enough to describe the city within the walls. It is more than any vivid word or expression could describe

When Miguel Lopez de Legazpi defeated Rajah Soliman, a native chieftain of Maynilad, on June 24, 1571, he established Inramuros, also known as Ciudad Murada or Walled City, as the seat of the Spanish sovereignty in the Orient. King Philip II honored it with the title Insigne y Siempre Leal Ciudad (Distinguished and Ever Loyal City. At first, its walls were made of wood that rebels and pirates burned down. In 1584, Governor General Santiago de Vera and Governor General Gomez Perez Dasmariñas built Fort Santiago, named after James Slayer of Moors, Spain’s patron saint, whose wooden relief decorates its main gate.

Two years later, when defenses consisting of moats, bulwarks, and stone walls stretching 4.5 kilometers in length and surrounding a 64 hectare of land were completed, Intramuros then became the social, cultural, political, educational, commercial, and the ecclesiastical center of Spain’s empire in the East..          

During the semestral break, we spent a day strolling along its walls and visiting its historical landmarks. We muse over the events that took place on every spot we visited. As we entered the city, we noticed that its streets were different because they were inlaid with cobblestones. We wondered how much effort masons exerted in placing those stones in perfect alignment. Not far away, we saw the Manila Cathedral, also known as the Basilica Minore de Immaculada Concepcion, an imposing Romanesque structure of Philippine adobe.

After reading its marker, we learned that it is the fifth stone church in Manila and was rebuilt six times because of wars, fires, and earthquakes. It has façade and columns of Ionic and Corinthian designs, stained glass windows depicting various Philippine madonnas, and a main door of bronze with eight panels depicting its history in bas relief. The cross at the top of its dome is the reference point of the distance of a province from Manila.

From the Manila Cathedral, we crossed the street and proceeded to the Plaza de Roma, formerly Plaza de Armas where the statue of King Carlos IV of Spain stood and where the ilustrados staged bullfights in the Eighteenth Century. Adjacent to the square is the restored Palacio del Gobernador and the ruins of the Intendencia and the Ayuntamiento destroyed during World War II. The first, being restored by the Intramuros Administration, will house the Philippine Archives while the latter, being ignored served as pay parking for WOW Philippines visitors.

After eating our brunch in a nearby restaurant, we visited the newly renovated Philippine-Mexican Plaza at the bank of the Ilog Pasig where a landmark of the Cuatro Centenario Expedicion Maritima Mexico-Filipinas built during the time of President Diosdado Macapagal is located. We also sat on the lap of the statue of Adolfo Lopez Mateo, President of Mexico from 1958-1964, which Luis A Sanguino sculpted in bronze. From there, we proceeded to site of the old University of Santo Tomas where Dr. Jose P Rizal first studied medicine before he went to Spain. We learned that the Arch of Century inside UST in España Street is the ruins of the main entrance of its old building in Intramuros.

After which, we went to the Fort Santiago that served as the headquarters of the Spanish, British, American, and Japanese forces. Upon entry, we had a group picture at the Plaza Armas, its main square. We followed the brass shoeprints that trace the path of Rizal when he walked to Bagumbayan, now Luneta Park. We ascended near the Dulaang Rajah Soliman, an adobe barracks buildings, where a theater company regularly presents musicals and stage plays. At that time, a group of Filipino musicians awed the audience with sweet kundiman, Philippine folk songs.

We walked over the stonewalls from the Media Baluarte de San Francisco, which guarded the fort from the bay and the river, to the Falsabraga de Santa Barbara and Falsabraga de Media Naranja, false stone walls that protected the main bulwark from heavy bombardment. We saw the top view of the ruins of the chapel where Rizal spent his last night on earth. We were told that Josephine Bracken, Rizal’s wife “spent the whole night on my knees in prayer in front of the door of the prison where my husband was held.”

We also visited the Rizal Shrine where the Spaniards incarcerated Rizal from November 3 to December 29. We also marveled on the various Rizaliana collections from coats and dumbbells to artworks and manuscripts. From there, we walked over stonewalls again, inspect the ruins of the Spanish barracks, and exited at the Baluarte de San Miguel down to the main gate.                       

We then went to the Casa Manila, a Nineteenth Century mansion replete with antique furniture from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century. It gave us a vivid picture of the lives of the elites. We learned that a certain Governor General Santos originally owned the house, as one of the staff narrated. After an hour, we visited the San Augustin Church built by Juan Macia, a soldier and architect, from 1587 to 1606. It is the oldest stone church in the country and it survived a series of disasters: bombs in 1945, fires in 1574 and 1583, and earthquakes in 1645, 1754, 1852, 1863, 1880, 1968, and 1970.

An earthquake destroyed one of its belfries of Doric and Corinthian designs in 1863. Its main door, carved out of Philippine molave, depicts Augustinian figures and symbols. Two Italian artists – a certain Dibella and Alberoni – who created an illusion of wooden carvings tediously painted its vaulted dome and ceilings. Inside the church are 14 chapels dedicated to various saints where the remains of illustrious conquistadores are buried

Adjoining the church is the San Agustin Museum of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, and Mexican artifacts and religious arts collected by Augustinians. Before, the museum was a monastery used as vestry, library, refectory, infirmary, classrooms, and living quarters. British forces destroyed it in 1762, American soldiers in 1898, and during World War II in 1945.

From the old porter’s lodge where a 3 400 kilogram bell stands, is the Sala Recibidor, formerly a classroom. It houses the Luis Maria Araneta Ivory Collection and a magnificent Eighteenth Century wooden retablo. The four corridors at the ground floor of the museum display oil paintings that portray saints and celebrities of the Augustinian order.

Augustinian monks used the old vestry at the ground floor to dress up for liturgical services. It is where Governor General Fermin Jáudenes drafted the terms of surrender of Manila to the Americans in 1898. The room displays statues, church artifacts, and episcopal paraphernalia.

Marked by a large wooden door and frescoed wall of Aztec inspired influence, the old sacristy displays statues, paintings, candlesticks, and China chest drawers. A large polychrome Seventeenth Century altar with 22 gold niches, the original retablo of the San Augustin Church carved by Juan de los Santos in 1650, caught our attention.

Also called the Sala Profundis, the Augustinians used the ante refectory to say grace before and after meals at the refectory. In 1939, the Prior of the monastery converted a part of the refectory as a mausoleum for the Augustinians and other prominent Filipinos, Juan Luna included. It also houses the Pagrel Collection of retablos, bas-reliefs, tabernacles, candlesticks, liturgical chairs, wooden santos, and processional guidons.

We also climbed the grand staircase of the museum. It is made of 44 pieces of Chinese granite stones from Canton, China in 1780 and topped by a perfectly round stone dome covered with light bricks, with six rectangular windows. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century paintings adorn its walls.

At the second floor, we walked through four white plastered corridors. The first hall to the right is the Claustro de San Pablo that displays old paintings, the Caja de Obras Pias, the table used during chapter meetings, and the scale models of the San Augustin Church and Museum and Fr. Manuel Blanco’s Garden.

Nnumerous pictures of churches built by Augustinians from 1565 to 1898 occupies the San Agustin Hall, the old living quarters of Major Superiors of the Augustinian Order in the Philippines, the Prior of the monastery, and other officials. Also on exhibit are Filipino Grammars and Dictionaries written by Augustinians. Equally revealing is the Ermelo Almeda Collection of heirloom jars from Southeast Asia.

At the Oratorio, we saw a big lectern with cantorals, the Seventeenth Century Pipe Organ, 68 choir seats carved in molave with fine inlays, and a crucifix dating back to the Seventeenth Century.

Before we went down, we had entered a room that displays Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Chinese and Spanish capes, chasubles, dalmatics, vestments, and altar cloths and frontals decorated and embroidered with gold and silver metallic thread.

Downstairs, we strolled the ruins of the century old Fr. Blanco’s garden. Father Blanco, the prince of botany, published Flora de Filipinas in 1883 and pioneered the study of medicinal plants in the Philippines.

A long walk over the walls from the Puerta de Santa Isabel to the Calle Real concluded our tour (Written With Yukari Rigor Abe, Ma Christina S Reyes, Edwin Cang Rodrigo, and Daryl Patrick Gerella Ruiz).