The walls of Intramuros are the most important historical site in Manila. They are near the mouth of the Pasig River on the southern bank. They are 3.7 kilometers long and are set up in an odd pentagon shape. They surround the five square kilometers that made up Spanish colonial Manila.

The first area to be fortified was where Fort Santiago is now. On this spot was Raja Soliman’s palisade, which Miguel Lopez de Legazpi took over in 1571 when Soliman ran away because the Spaniard had better weapons. Guido de Lavezaris, who took over for Legazpi, got ready for an attack by the Chinese pirate Limahong. Intramuros walls. In September 1574, a temporary wall made of wood, stakes, and boxes and barrels filled with sand was built. It ran from Fort Santiago south to about where the Bastion de San Diego would be built. After getting rid of the Chinese, Lavezaris started building a palisade around the city. The new governor-general, Francisco de Sande, finished it in 1577.

From 1584 to 1590, Governor-General Santiago de Vera had a Jesuit named Antonio Sedeo build a stone fort on the southern side of the city, facing the hermitage of Nuestra Seora de Guia in Ermita, which de Vera called “a stone tower on the seashore.” But while the tower was being built, it fell apart and had to be fixed with buttresses called culverins.

Intramuros walls & Gomez Perez Dasmarias

Governor-General Gomez Perez Dasmarias did the most to fortify Manila from 1590 to 1593. He changed the shape of the old fort to make it more useful and connected it to a curtain wall. In 1590, work began on a wall made of stone. During the time that Francisco Tello was Governor-General (1596–1602) and Pedro Bravo de Acua was Governor-General (1602–1606), the walls of the whole fort were raised and damage was fixed. Intramuros walls.  The first attack by the Chinese in 1603 showed that the city wasn’t completely safe. Around the same time, the Dutch were a threat, so Governor-General Alfonso Fajardo de Tenza, who was in charge from 1618 to 1624, had moats dug along the east side of the walls. Later, they were made wider and deeper, up to about 60 meters wide and 3 meters deep, so they could be used as backup waterways in case enemy forces blocked the mouth of the river. The ditch that de Vera dug earlier but never finished should not be confused with the moat.

Between 1635 and 1544, Governor-General Hurtado de Corcuera had moats, bulwarks, and covered walkways built. Governor-General Diego Fajardo, who was in charge of the city from 1644 to 1653, knew that the city was most vulnerable on the land side, so he had the curtain wall from Bastion de San Diego to Bastion de San Nicolás de Caranza (San Andrés) made wider. However, this made the bulwarks much smaller, so he had them made longer. During the earthquake of 1645, the walls of Manila fell down. From 1653 to 1663, Fajardo’s successor Sabiniano Manrique de Lara worked for 10 years to fix the broken walls. He made the Bastion de San Diego 7.5 meters taller. In 1663, he worked to finish fixing and improving Manila’s defenses because he was afraid the Chinese Koxinga would attack.

De Lara fortified the Real Puerta and fixed the San Gabriel, San Nicolas, and San Francisco bulwarks. Along the coast, he rebuilt the old media-naranja, which was a half-moon-shaped wall that came before the ravelin and was called San Lorenzo. Here, he also built the stone fort San Jose, which is in the shape of a pentagon, as well as the forts San Eugenio, San Pedro, and San Juan. Intramuros walls. He built the bulwark of San Francisco Xavier at the back gate of the old Palace, the small fort of Almacenes along the river wall, and a bulwark at the Santo Domingo gate. He also made the moat better by digging it deeper and building falsabraga (low forewalls).

From 1663 until the end of the century, the walls were repaired in small ways, but their shape stayed the same as it was when de Lara left. There had never been a military engineer who worked in the Philippines, so the walls were a mix of different projects.

Intramuros walls during the 18th century

During the 18th century, reforms in Spain changed the way the government ran. The Bourbons sent a group of military engineers to work on projects all over the empire. Juan Ramirez de Ciscara was the first military engineer to be sent to Manila. He got there in 1705. Intramuros walls. But things were pretty quiet at the start of the 18th century. During Fernando Valdes y Tamon’s time as Governor-General, from 1729 to 1739, the ravelin of Puerta Real was fixed up in 1734. Fray Juan de Arechederra was governor from 1745 to 1750. During his time in office, the moat in front of the Puerta de Parian was fixed.

From 1762 to 1764, the British ruled Manila, proving that the walls did not work as military engineers had predicted. The British destroyed the bulwarks of San Andres, San Jose, and San Eugenio and broke the walls of Baluarte de San Diego. The bulwarks and walls were fixed, but the walls needed a lot of work to keep out another attack like that. The walls were to be made into a polygon, buildings next to the walls that were taller than a certain height were to be torn down, Fort Santiago was to be fixed up, and a low wall was to be built in front of the main defenses. The engineers suggested taking down some stone buildings outside of Intramuros that were close enough to the fort to be a threat.

When Dionisio O’Kelly moved there in 1769, he suggested making the seaside moat deeper and adding parapets to the walls. Intramuros walls. By 1772, both the sea moat and the Bagumbayan moat had been fixed up and made deeper. In front of Fort Santiago, a moat was built. Bagumbayan’s ravelin got parapets, and its walls were covered with bricks. On the side of Dilao, a ravelin was built (now Paco). From 1772 to 1776, work on the walls slowed down because the government didn’t like the plans.

Jose Vargas de Basco, the new Governor-General, had Tomás Sanz keep working on Manila’s defenses after he arrived in 1778. Sanz fixed the San Diego and San Andres bulwarks, put the entrance behind a ravelin, fixed up the Santa Lucia, Parian, and Postigo gates, and made the ravelin of the Parian gate bigger. From 1781 to 1787, improvements were made that gave the walls their shape for the next few decades. Manila’s outer defenses were finished when the moat and its forewalls were fixed, the fortins of Santiago and San Pedro were built, wooden drawbridges were put over the moat, parapets were put up on the walls and bulwarks, and a road was built around the city.

At the end of Spanish rule, the walls had eight main gates: Real, Santa Lucia, Almacenes, Aduana, Santo Domingo, Isabel II, Postigo, and Parian. Puerta Isabel II was the last one to be built. It was done in 1862. The old Santo Domingo gate was closed when this new gate was built. In addition to Fort Santiago, there were six bastions: San Gabriel, Dilao, San Andrés, San Diego, Santa Lucia, and Santo Domingo. Intramuros walls. There were two moats, one inside and one outside, and two gates, Parian and Real, each with a ravelin. A narrow portal was used to get to Recoletos, the third ravelin.

Intramuros walls and the center of Manila

By the 1800s, the walls no longer worked, and Intramuros stopped being the center of Manila. The outside towns of Binondo, Santa Cruz, and Quiapo were where business and social life grew the most. Friars, students, and a few wealthy families were left to live in Intramuros. In the late 1800s, a number of earthquakes left scars on the city and its walls. During the time the Americans were in charge, Intramuros got even worse. The tiled roofs were taken off and replaced with rusty galvanized iron sheets.

Daniel H. Burnham, an American architect and city planner, thought that the walled city should be kept. The moats, which were full of mosquitoes, were filled with dirt to make them cleaner. A sunken garden was built with an aquarium and a golf course. Walls were broken at the southern end of Calle Palacio (now General Luna Street), on Victoria Street near San Juan de Letran, and on Aduana Street to make it easier for cars to get through. Intramuros walls. After Puerta Real was moved to where it is now, west along Muralla, the old Puerta Real, which was bricked up but still visible, was torn down. Between the Ravelin de Santo Domingo and the Maestranza, a stretch of wall was taken down so that people could get to the wharves along the Pasig.

On land that was moved in front of the walls, a new port area was built. This cut Intramuros off from the sea. Here, South Harbor would be built next to the Manila Hotel. It would open in 1912. The Commonwealth Act No. 171 was passed on November 12, 1936, to keep Intramuros as a reminder of the past. This was in response to plans to tear down the walls completely and let new development happen in the old city. Intramuros walls. The law also said that all new buildings, repairs, and renovations had to be built in the style of Spanish colonial architecture.

Even though the Japanese bombed Intramuros on December 26 and 27, 1941, only the northeast part was hurt.

Damage was done to Santo Domingo and the convento next to it, as well as Santa Catalina, San Juan de Letran, Santo Tomás University, and the Intendencia. Manila was made a free city on December 26. On January 2, 1942, Japanese troops moved in and took over the city. Even though people were being arrested and sometimes harassed, city life went on until December 21, 1944, when the Japanese told President Jose P. Laurel to move the government to Baguio. In February 1945, the last blow was dealt. On February 8 and 9, Japanese troops burned down the city because they were surrounded by American troops. The Americans had already taken over Sampaloc and Quiapo, and they were also coming from the south in a “pincer” operation. With the exception of a few buildings, all of the city was destroyed by American artillery. This was done to get Japanese troops to leave. Puerta Santa Lucia was in ruins. Tanks were sent to Fort Santiago to free the prisoners held there by the Japanese. They blew open the fort’s fancy gate.

Except for the Augustinians, the religious orders that had built their centers in Intramuros left after the war. The cathedral was in ruins until 1954, when work started to fix it up. Intramuros walls. Many people left the bombed-out city, and the walls, which were damaged but not destroyed by the war, were left to fall apart. Many people who lost their homes, jobs, or money because of the war moved into the bombed-out buildings and walls of Intramuros. Intramuros turned into a city of squatters. Stones from the wall were used to build other things.

Intramuros walls become a historical landmark

Republic Act No. 597 made Intramuros a historical landmark and made Fort Santiago a national shrine in 1951. The act decided how Intramuros would be fixed, rebuilt, and planned. The National Historical Institute (NHI) started restoring the walls with the help of civic groups and ad hoc committees. The most active were the Intramuros Restoration Committee of 1966, which fixed the gates, and the Armed Forces Ladies’ Committee, which fixed Fort Santiago’s moat and other buildings like the Fortn de San Francisco and the Bastión de Santa Lucia.

Work on the walls started, which mostly meant cleaning the walls and getting rid of plants. Cleaning the walls every few months became a favorite project of many civic groups and the City of Manila. When Diosdado Macapagal was president from 1961 to 1965, he set up the Emergency Employment Administration (EEA), which gave short-term jobs to people who were unemployed. Intramuros walls. Many people worked on the repair, maintenance, and building of infrastructure. The EEA worked on the walls of Intramuros often and kept them in good shape.

On April 19, 1979, President Ferdinand Marcos signed Presidential Decree No. 1616, which made the Intramuros Administration (IA). The IA is in charge of looking after Intramuros and making sure it gets fixed up. As a first step toward making Intramuros a unique historical site, IA worked to fix up the walls of Intramuros. IA looked at old documents, maps, pictures, and photos, and also did archaeological surveys. With the help of foreign consultants, one of the first things IA did was fix up the ravelins, especially Parian and Puerta Real, so that they could be used for cultural events and shows. Parian, which led to the row of colleges and universities along Muralla, was turned into a park where temporary stores were set up. Students used to hang out here.

In 1979, when archaeologists were looking at the Bastion de San Diego, they found a circle of cut stones about two meters below the surface. Archival research showed that the circle of cut stones was all that was left of the round tower built by Sedeo and added by Dasmarias to the Intramuros walls. Later, the tower was changed into a cistern that caught rain and gave the city water until the Carriedo Aguas Potables, which brought water from San Juan to Manila, was built.

After the walls were fixed, the vaulted chambers (casamata) under the walls, which were used by the Spanish to store things and give soldiers a place to stay, could be used again. Near Puerta Isabel II, there used to be a church art and artifacts museum, but it has since closed. It was okay for cafes and restaurants to open in the area. At one point, al fresco dining was built on top of the casamata, and buildings were put up that took away from the wall’s original shape. These buildings have been taken down.

People were living within the Intramuros walls without permission

Long after the war ended, in 1961, the government started to deal with the fact that people were living in Intramuros without permission. Sapang Palay Resettlement Area in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, was the first government project to help people move. It was 752 hectares in size. People were moved out of the informal settlers’ colonies in Manila, which included the people who lived in Intramuros.

The walls of Intramuros were still being built by IA. It built a vault over the broken wall at the southern end of Calle Real del Palacio and an arch over the western end of Aduana (Andres Soriano Street). This let vehicles into Intramuros and connected the walls so that you could walk along them from Aduana to the Puerta del Parian.

In 2008, IA helped rebuild the Maestranza and the Bastion de Herrerias, which had been damaged by war, with help from the Department of Tourism and money from the Japanese government. The guns and other weapons used in Intramuros were made and kept in the Maestranza, or armory, which was near Fort Santiago. Its vaulted rooms were also used to store goods that were going to be sent to Mexico on the galleon from the Port of Cavite. The Maestranza was built in the 1600s, but it stopped being used at the end of the 1800s. It was used as an arsenal by the Americans, and World War II wiped it out completely.

With the rebuilding of the Maestranza and the bastion next to it, the walls of Intramuros were almost done. In 2010, the half-finished wall was opened to the public. Since then, events have been held there.

Escuela Taller at the Revellin de los Recoletos

The opening of Escuela Taller at the Revellin de los Recoletos is a big step toward restoring Intramuros and other colonial buildings. This independent outer fortification was built outside the southeast part of Intramuros, near where the Recoletos church is now. It has been given to the school, which teaches a new generation of students the techniques, skills, and aesthetics of building during the Spanish era.

In places that used to be part of the Spanish empire, similar schools have been built. Students come to the school from Baseco and other poor cities. Escuela Taller is a school where Filipinos, Mexicans, and Spaniards teach together. The Spanish government has given money to the school over a number of years. Students who finish a Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)-certified course in basic construction methods, such as carpentry, masonry, and electrical, learn how to make lime mortar, carve and lay stone, do decorative painting, and build in the colonial style, among other things. Buildings at Fort Santiago, Almacenes, and Barrio San Luis have been kept up and fixed by people who graduated. In 2014, the National Museum said that the walls were a National Cultural Treasure.

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