Intramuros: The walled city

Intramuros is a 0.67 square kilometers (0.26 sq mi) fortified area located within Manila. It is the city's oldest district and historic core, with its establishment beginning the city's history and habitation. It name, intramuros, is a Latin word which means "within the walls". During the Spanish colonial times, places located beyond the walls were referred to as extramuros, which means "outside the walls".It earned the nickname Walled City because of the thick defensive walls surrounding it that was constructed by the colonizing Spaniards in the late 16th century to protect the it from foreign invasions. The city was originally located along the shores of Manila Bay and near the southern Pasig River entrance before 20th-century reclamations obscured the city from the bay. Guarding the city is the Fuerte de Santiago, a citadel located at the mouth of the river. Intramuros was the seat of government during the Spanish colonial period. It was destroyed on the Battle of Manila (1945) and was reconstructed during the Marcos regime spearheaded by Imelda Marcos. The Global Heritage Fund identified Intramuros as one of the 12 worldwide sites "on the verge" of irreparable loss and dustruction on its 2010 report titled Saving Our Vanishing Heritage, citing its insufficient management and development pressures.

In the 16th century, a thriving community of Tagalogs live around the palasaded residence of its ruler, Rajah Sulayman. The palisade was built on the Pasig River’s southern bank, where the river empties unto a sheltered bay. A Muslim, Sulayman was related to Rajah Matanda (the older Rajah) and Rajah Lakandula, who ruled over the northern bank, called Tondo. The Rajahs were in turn related to the royalty of Brunei, a center of Islam, which was not just a religion but a way of life that shaped the development of political and social life. Driven by hunger the Spanish colony, first established in Cebu in 1565, pushed steadily north. By 1569, a settlement was established in Pan-ay where news of a capacious bay and prospects of trade and supplies up north reached the colonists. In 1570, Legazpi dispatched his nephew Juan de Salcedo and Martin de Goiti to reconoiter north. They reached Mindoro where the inhabitants capitulated to Spanish guns, then headed for Batangas, and entered the Pansipit River all the way to Bonbon Lake (Taal). From there they moved on to Manila Bay and dropped anchor at a hook-shaped sandbar called Kawit (Cavite). This was the staging point for their attack on Sulayman’s fortification. Although 1570 marked the formal colonization of Manila, the rest of the colonists did not arrive until a year later in May. By then Sulayman’s palisade damaged by the previous years bombardment was up again. A battle ensued, Sulayman was forced to capitulate and abandon his outpost. The following month on 24 June 1571, the Feast of birth of John the Baptist, Manila was constituted as a city of the Spanish realm. The Tagalogs who had been forced off their land settled either with their relatives in Tondo or eventually moved to an area south of the Spanish perimeter, called Bagumbayan (new town). This is the site presently ocupied by Luneta park bordering the district called Ermita. Although Manila received its royal charter on 24 June 1571; given the honorific “ever loyal and noble City” in 1574 and much later awarded a coat of arms (1595), consisting of a castle or at chief and a demi-lion and dolphin naiant at base, the city remained for decades without the wall nor the buildings of mortar and adobe with which we associate Intramuros. From 1571-74, the only defense of the city was a palisade, reinforced with earth around the same site as Sulayman’s fortification. But in September 1574, alarmed by news on an impending attack by the Chinese Limahong, Legazpi’s successor as governor general, Guido de Lavezares, ordered the building of makeshift defenses which consisted of “board, stakes and boxes and barrels filled with sand.” Limahong almost overrun the city, while Martin de Goiti, who was indisposed beause of fever, was killed during the attack at his residence in Bagumbayan. Only the timely return of Juan de Salcedo and his troops, who had been sent north to “pacify” the inhabitants and search for gold, saved the city. The day was the 30th of August, the Feast of the Apostle Andrew. Limahong was forced to retreat, and found his way north to Pangasinan where his troops were finally defeated. The city decided to name St. Andrew patron of the city in gratitude for what was believed to be his heavenly intervention. Realizing the need to fortify, Lavesares began surrounding the city with a palisade which was completed under the third governor general Francisco de Sande. In 1581, a Jesuit named Antonio Sedeño arrived in Manila. He had some knowledge of architecture and was responsible for rebuilding the episcopal palace in stone after a fire in 1583 razed the city. Gov. Gen. Santiago de Vera asked the Jesuit to design a fortification for Manila’s southern and most vulnerable flank. Sedeño designed a circular roofed fortification in the style of medieval towers. The tower was dedicated to the Nuestra Señora de Guia, whose image was kept in a hermitage just outside the city walls. Construction of a stone wall was begun in earnest between 1591-94, under Gov. Gen. Gomez Perez Dasmariñas. He had the NS de Guia tower redesigned and integrated into a more modern wall system. Apparently, Sedeño’s circular tower was still standing in the early 17th century. The oidor Antonio de Morga (Sucesos 1609) describes the de Guia as spacious with places for soldiers quarters; however, later in the same book he contradicts himself by saying that Dasmariñas had the de Guia razed. The fortifications of Intramuros were being constantly repaired and improved under different governors general from Dasmariñas’ time until 1872 when the last recorded work on the fortifications was completed. From 1618-24, because of the threat posed by the Dutch, Gov. Gen. Alfonso Fajardo de Tenza had a moat dug on along the city’s eastern flank. In 1603 and from 1629-30 the Chinese living near Manila rose up in revolt. The 1630 revolt spread to other neighboring provinces. As a consequence of this uprising, the Chinese were driven out of the city and forced to live in a ghetto, known as Parian, one arquebus shot distant from the walls. An open space was built between the city and the Chinese ghetto. But the inhabitants of Manila needed the goods and services of the Chinese, so they were allowed to bring their goods to a gate, which faced the Parian. Under Gov. Gen Hurtado de Corcuera (1635-44) the moat was expanded and covered walkways constructed. We have an idea of the city’s moat because they are depicted in a 1671 map designed by Ignacio Muñoz, O.P. The moat runs around the eastern and southern flank of the citadel. A contra foso (outer moat) appears in this map, separated from the principal moat by an island formed between the two. The moats are linked at the Baluarte de San Nicolás by a narrow canal. A bridge across the inner moat links Puerta del Parian with the island, where a small outer fortification and curtain wall (a tenaile) was built to protect the gate. Puerta Real which at this time at the end of Calle Real del Palacio was also protected by an outer fortification, a demi-lune.