Day 3 in the Philippines!
This is the third day that I’ve been here in the Philippines. Every day seems better than the one before.
Today, we spent out time visiting a couple of really excellent historical sites! First, we visited Fort Santiago, a very historical place
Fuerza de Santiago is a defence 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.The location of this site was also once the palace and kingdom of Rajah Suliman, chieftain of Manila. It was destroyed by the conquistadors upon arriving in 1570-71, incountering several bloody battles with the Muslims and indigenous Tagalog peoples. The Spaniards destroyed the native settlements and erected Fuerza de Santiago in 1571.
The first fort was made out of log structures and earth. It was destroyed in 1574 by invaders of ethnic Chinese pirates who laid seige on the area. The Spaniards eventually drove them out and in 1589 the fort was constructed by hard stone and finished in 1592. It became the main fort for travels and spice trade to the Americas and Europe for 333 years. The famous Manila Galleon trade to Acapulco, Mexico started sailing from Fuerza de Santiago.
The fort is shielded by 22 metres high walls, with a thickness of 8 metres and an entrance measuring 40 metres high. It is located at the mouth of the Pasig River and it was once the premier defence fortress of the Spanish Government in the Philippines. It was heavily damaged during the Battle of Manila in February 1945 and was restored by the Intramuros Administration during 1980’s. This days the fort is made into a museum which houses well preserved legacies of the Spanish Government, Jose Rizal (which is called the Plaza de Armas), Rizal Shrine, and the Prison dungeons for criminals used by the Spanish Officials.
Jose Rizal, the country’s national hero was imprisoned here before his execution in 1896.
One of the things that brief introduction doesn’t say was that Jose Rizal was imprisoned at this very location and he was walked with his hands tied behind his back to the front of the walled city and shot in the back from a Spanish group of soldiers. Here are some excellent pictures of our time at Fort Santiago in Intramuros:
While we were in Intramuros, we stopped by the Manila Catholic Cathedral:
Following our visit at Fort Santiago, we went to visit Fort Bonafacio (aka, Libingan Ng Mga Bayani ).
The Republic Memorial Cemetery at Fort McKinley was established in May 1947 as a fitting tribute to the gallant Filipino men and women who brought honor to the country and fought for the sake of freedom and democracy. On October 27, 1954, the Memorial Cemetery was renamed Libingan Ng Mga Bayani (LNMB) by the late President Ramon Magsaysay. Presidential Proclamation No. 208 was then issued by President Ferdinand E. Marcos on May 28, 1967, to reserve an area of 142 hectares from the Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation. This was intended for National Shrine purposes and placed under the administration of the Military Shrines Services, Philippine Veterans Affairs, Department of National Defense.The Libingan Ng Mga Bayani is under the administration and maintenance of the Grave Service Unit (GSU), a unit of the Philippine Army Support, Armed Forces of the Philippines. The mission of the GSU is to provide grave services to deceased military personnel who died in line of duty or were honorably discharged, Filipino veterans, former presidents, government dignitaries, statesmen and national artists. Aside from maintaining the LNMB and the military grave site at Manila North Cemetery, the unit is also capable of providing mortuarial and memorial services to authorized personnel.
Here are some of the pictures I took at this site:
Well, that’s it for one day! It was a long day ddealing with all the traffic! But it’s ok! None of us are driving!!
Randy & Vangie Townley