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SPAFA Digest 1982, Vol. 3, No. 1

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24 INTRAMUROS Founded by the Spaniards, destroyed by the Americans during the war, the walled city is being restored by the Filipinos. by Esperanza B. Gatbonton In the summer of 1570, Mar- tin de Goiti, Legaspi's master- of-camp, and Juan de Salcedo, the conquistador's grandson, sailed off for Manila from Panay, in search of a more congenial settlement than the Visayan island had been for their expedition. With them was a native Manilan, a trader newly converted to Christia- nity, who had followed the Spaniards to their new settle- ment from Cebu. He was to act as interpreter for the questing Spaniards. He probably guided them as well, northwards to Luzon and into Manila Bay, past Mindoro and Balayan Bay. The Spanish fleet consisted of one armed frigate, one junk and fifteen praus. The Spanish chronicler's account of the expedition's first view of Manila was little short of rapturous. Map of old Intramuros "The land all around this bay, town was situated in the bank of in the part where we anchored ... the river, and it seemed to be the port of Menilla, was really defended by a palisade all along marvellous. It appeared to be A Reprint from "Weekend,"a its front. Within it were many tilled and cultivated. The slopes warriors, and the shore outside Magazine of the Daily Express were smooth, and had but little crowded with people. Pieces of issued in Manila on 4 May herbage. In fact, so excellent artillery stood at the gates, 1980. indications have not been seen in guarded by bombardiers, lin- this land as were seen there...The stock in hand." 25 This was to be the Spanish attacked in 1574. With some "From this fort (Fort Santia- promised land. On the very luck, it held. go) and the beach near the sea, same site of this palisaded The succeeding governor, I have dug a deep ditch, 34 feet town that the voyagers came Francisco de Sande (1575- wide, which fills with the in- upon, the Spaniards built their 1580), was appalled by the coming tide and even at low tide city. They enlarged the orig- primitive conditions, of Mani- has sufficient water to float inal palisade which the dis- la's defenses. He ordered the several vessels used in carrying riverside staked in and the sea- materials to the said work. This placed indios has built at the ditch extends from the sea to mouth of the Pasig River and side filled in with earth. He the river and at that side around encircled their new settlement joined the palisades with the entire city in such wise that with a defensive wall. embankments and raised the latter is an island formed by The Walls took 300 years to mounds. This gave the garrison sea, river and ditch. In the place build. Beginning from Legazpi a commanding view of the of the wooden fortress, I am himself, up until 1872, succes- surrounding area. In those going to build a bulwark to sive governors-general sought early years, the danger often defend the entrance to the river to improve Manila's defenses came from the sea — from and beach which can correspond — in between fighting off in- raiding "moros," and from to the tower already built; and Chinese and Japanese pirates. the new fortress will defend vasions from land and sea: both sides of the ditch and the the Chinese Limahong, the At times, these marauders sea. Along the river bank I have Dutch, rebels from the were joined by the Portuguese, ordered stone breastwork built, Chinese Parian, and the British. who were primarily interested extending from the old wooden Each assault showed how for- in dislodging the Spaniards fortress, on one side, to the midable the Walls were in cer- from the East. ditch on the other." tain places and how vulnera- The following year, with ble they were in others. Over another Governor General — The material De Vera chose the centuries, the Walls be- Santiago de Vera (1584-1590) for his defenses was adobe or came a sophisticated fortress — and the services of Antonio volcanic tufa, which he describ- — surrounded by moats and Sederlo, a Jesuit who had once ed as "so suitable that when it ramparts, bastions and gates worked as a military engineer, is wet, it can be worked like and look-out towers, which a more lasting type of defense wood and when dry it is very kept an enemy at bay and the went up. De Vera wrote of strong and durable; and it is Spaniards safe within. his plans: better than brick for artillery," Even Intramuros, the Spanish city within the Walls, took on the character of its Walls — turned in on itself, smug, brooding on gone glory and in the end, defenseless against the outside world. Until 1852, its eight gates clos- ed at 11 o'clock in the evening to open only at dawn. History of the Walls The first defenses which the Spaniards built were no better than Soliman's palisades of palm tree-logs banked with earth. Guido de Lavezares (1572-1575) strengthened this main line of defense along the seaside, adding boxes and barrels filled with sand. As a precaution against fire, he or- Puerta Isabel, a gateway to Intramuros, has been restored dered all straw roofs removed from within the city limits. It and transformed into a small museum. was De Lavezares' fort which the Chinese pirate Limahong 26 A more elaborate gate in Fort Santiago ces. Dutch raids were most frequent, and most fierce dur- ing this period, and Chinese disturbances endemic. Gover- nor Sebastian Hurtado de Cor- cuerra, noting the inadequate protection of some of the strategic areas, introduced some remedies. On the southern portion, near the site of the old Fort of Nuestra Senora de Guia; and the Fun- dicion, Corcuerra built a moat which connected to an older one. He also demolished several houses which adjoined the Walls, but this decision was to be a very costly one for Corcuerra. For he incurred the ire of the Recoletos, whose convent outside the Wall, that of San Juan, only stood several paces away. But Corcuerra's foresight was to be vindicated, since the British used this weak spot for at- tacking the city's defenses in 1762. Like Lavezares years before Resentment from overwork- Juan de Silva (1609-1616), him, Santiago de Vera ordered ed natives and exploited Chi- Nino de Tabora (1626-1632), all inflammable roof thatch nese created uneasy times for Diego de Fajardo (1643) and huts in the Walled City the Spaniards. In fact, Das- Manriquede Lara (1653-1663), brought down. With the new marinas was murdered by Chi- successively worked on technology and the skill of Se- nese mutineers on an expedi- changes on the western side, deno, roof tiles soon became tion to the Moluccas. De adding bastions and redoubts: fashionable in the Intramuros Vera's handiwork, the Fort of San Francisco, San Juan, San houses. the Nuestra Senora de Guia Jose, San Pedro. Fajardo, who The fortification of Manila (now the Bastion de San Die- completed the building of now took a more professional go located directly opposite Bastion de San Diego, also turn. Gomez Perez Dasmarinas the Manila Hotel), Dasmarinas finished what Tabora had be- came in 1590 (1590-93) supplemented with breastwork gun. He enlarged and improv- armed with a letter from King and ramparts. He added the ed San Andres and Dilao far Philip, and apparently accom- bastions of. San Andres (in beyond Dasmarinas' concept panied by an engineer, Leo- front of Bulletin Today); San of these bastions. nardo Iturriano, who designed Gabriel (beside Letran); San Dr Lara was kept busy by the fortress and the buildings. Fernando Dilao or San Loren- repairs and additional forti- (Whether Iturriano did come zo (near Mapua). For some fication. The Revel/in de to the Philippines at all is still time Dasmarinas' Walls suf- Parian is of this date. Two being disputed by historians.) ficed, and except for minor major earthquakes in 1645 Dasmarinas fortified Fort repairs and alterations, not and 1658 necessitated major Santiago, raising its walls to much was done to change repairs. Bastion de San Diego, double the height of a man, and them. which had just been complet- greatly reinforced defenses on The seventeenth century, ed in 1644, suffered heavy the landward side. however, saw many disturban- damage. It was said that De 27 Lara was so dedicated to re- parts facing the Pasig and con- Typhoons and earthquakes building the Walls that he gave verted them into a bastioned were constantly damaging the work his own money and front. Then Plano Bastion(Bas- rooftiles, so that by the end all his time. He practically tion de Sta Lucia), San Fran- of the nineteenth century, the lived in a little hut by the cisco and San Pedro were im- familiar red roof, quite often beach, so that he could al- proved. San Pedro, an out- moss-grown, had given way to ways be on hand. erwork, became a small fort, more practical galvanized iron. In the eighteenth century, while San Francisco also be- Intramuros architecture the bastions of San Andres came an independent unit, not used methods and materials and San Fernando de Dilao an extension of the curtain familiar to the Spaniards; but metamorphosed into their (plain span of the Wall con- in spirit it reflected the re- final stages — a far cry from necting two Bastions). alities of living in the tropics. the breastwork in Dasmarinas' Work on the most contin- Massive, squarish foundations plans, but bearing traces of Sil- ued and became more compli- of adobe that hug the earth va's and Tabora's planning.
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