As the song says, you'll definitely comeback to Manila.
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The City Hall during the Spanish Times.
Ayuntamiento de Manila
Intramuros, Manila
Insigne y leal ciudad de Manila
Since it is the Lenten Season once again, there is an exhibit of some life-size religious icons inside the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, this is open until March 18. This is for free, so if you want to see the trompe l’oiel interior and the cemetery of the church, this is your chance because the church rarely opens its doors to the public for free.
This is a part of the Celebration of the Feast of Immaculate Conception, the Titular Patroness of the Archdiocese of Manila.
This is to be celebrated on December 4, 2011 as the tradition sets it and the procession starts at the Cathedral after the High Mass.
(Source: mb.com.ph)
@6 months ago with 11 notes“Intramuros! The old Manila. The original Manila. The Noble and Ever Loyal City…
To the early conquistadores she was a new Tyre and Sidon; to the early missionaries she was a new Rome. Within these walls was gathered the wealth of the Orient - silk from China; spices from Java; gold and ivory and precious stones from India. And within these walls the Champions of Christ to Conquer the Orient for the Cross. Through these old streets once crowded a marvelous mulititude - viceroys and archbishops; mystics and merchants; pagan sorcerers and Christian Martyrs, Portuguese traitors, Dutch Spies, Moro Sultans, and Yanke clipper captains. For three centuries this medieval town was a Babylon in commerce and a New Jerusalem in its faith…
Now look: this is all that it’s left of it now. Weeds and rubble and scrap iron. A piece of wall, a fragment of stairway - and over there, the smashed gothic facade of Santo Domingo … Quomodo desolata es, Civitas Dei! (How desolate are you, the City of God!)”
-Bitoy Camacho
A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, Nick Joaquin
(Source: Flickr / johntewell)
The Twin Churches of Sampaloc
The main church is the Church of Sampaloc where Our Lady of Loreto is currently venerated, the feast day for Our Lady of Loreto will be on the second Sunday of December. The adjacent Church is the Chapel of VOT or the Venerable Orden Tercera, another Franciscan Order. The VOT Chapel is now the Saint Anthony of Padua Parish. The image of Saint Anthony came from the Intramuros Church of the Franciscans.
The old VOT chapel is another Felix Roxas creation, aside from the Santo Domingo and San Ignacio in Intramuros. The twin churches are patterned after the same configuration of the mother church of the Franciscan Order in Intramuros.
Notice that the bell tower of the VOT chapel did not change though.
I’m more familiar with Saint Anthony since we attend masses here when I was still living in Sampaloc.
Sources
http://ofmarchivesphilfoto1.tripod.com/ofm_i_archives_philippines_photo_gallery/index.album/our-lady-of-loreto-church-sampaloc-manila-1613?i=3
http://loeweann.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/archdiocesan-shrine-of-our-lady-of-loreto-parish-twin-churches-of-bustillos/
http://philippinetravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/03/twin-churches-of-bustillos.html
The Church had an Impressive NeoClassical Facade and a more impressive interior Woodworks, the highest point of wood carving in the 19th Century Philippines.
The Patron Saints of Manila
They are located in the facade of the Manila Cathedral. They were also present in the prewar Manila Cathedral, the only difference is that they are made from Molave wood, apparently to minimize load of the cathedral structure. Now, they are made from Roman travertine stone.
Like any other Colonial Churches, San Agustin Church also has crypts and tombs in the side chapels, and the San Agustin Church has Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, Juan de Salcedo and Juan Luna was interred inside the Church.
The practice of interring people inside Churches had been disallowed by the American Sanitary Authorities during the early days of American Occupation.
The Church of the Augustinians in Intramuros, the last and the sole remaining missionary order in that area is called the Church of Saint Paul. San Agustin is more popular since it is the church of the Order of Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine is a Christian Convert that became the Bishop of Hippo.
If the title “Ultimate Survivor” could be applied to a thing, San Agustin Church will get the title very easily. Being one of the last 16th Century Structures in Manila now (the earliest building dates at 1589), it had withstood several earthquakes including the great earthquakes of 1645 and 1863 that leveled the whole of Manila to the ground.
The secret? The Augustinians applied the same building techniques they had applied in Mexico, which has more weak soil foundation than us considering that Tenochtitlan (the site of Mexico), is actually on a lake. The first editions of San Agustin Church are without the bell tower, making it a boxlike structure. The Augustinian builders considered safety more than beauty that is why the church lacked beauty. Until 1854, that box structure was kept until Architect Luciano Oliver renovated the structure, adding twin belltowers. The left belltower collapsed during the 1880 earthquake. Also, a trompe-loeil painting in the ceiling of the church was painted in 1875. Trompe-loeil painting is a painting technique that makes a flat medium look like carved.
In 1993, along with the Santa Maria Church in Ilocos Sur, Miag-ao Church in Iloilo and San Agustin Church in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, San Agustin Church has been accorded with the UNESCO world heritage site status as The Baroque Churches of the Philippines.
For grave hunters, the cemetery of San Agustin is famous for being the resting place for the conquistadores Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, Juan de Salcedo and Martin de Goiti, Great Filipinos Juan Luna and Pedro Paterno.
The Bombing of the Santo Domingo Church
December 27, 1941. Gen. Douglas McArthur declared Manila an Open City the day earlier. But it did not stop the Japanese Bombs from hitting the majestic temple of the Dominicans in Intramuros (either they are ignorant of the directive or intentionally bombed the church). Though some of the La Naval (especially the Santo Rosario) and Santo Entierro ivory statues survived the fires that engulfed the church for many days (the hardwood carvings burned many days), the destruction of the Santo Domingo started the death of Intramuros, the final death blow happening 4 years later. Intramuros will never recover from this. It has been 70 years after that.
Fourth and Fifth Santo Domingo Church, Intramuros, Manila. The fourth Santo Domingo Church was demolished after the 1863 earthquake.
(Source: aenet.org)
UST University Museum, Intramuros
PS: These collections are now found in the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences
Soruce: Laya, Jaime and Gatbonton, Esperanza. Intramuros of Memory. Manila: Intramuros Administration, 1983
State Edifices of Intramuros.
1. Palacio del Gobernador (1870 plan, never built)
2. Ayuntamiento de Manila
3. Intendencia (Casa Moneda & Casa Aduana)
(Source: aenet.org)
This is a part of the Celebration of the Feast of Immaculate Conception, the Titular Patroness of the Archdiocese of Manila.
This is to be celebrated on December 4, 2011 as the tradition sets it and the procession starts at the Cathedral after the High Mass.
(Source: mb.com.ph)
The Church had an Impressive NeoClassical Facade and a more impressive interior Woodworks, the highest point of wood carving in the 19th Century Philippines.
