COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES (2). INTRAMUROS.

Photo courtesy of eazy traveler .

ESPAÑOL

I walk the streets of Intramuros and feel a sense of deja-vu, of delicious familiarity. I was surprised when one of my friends invited me a chicharron, a dish that reminds me of that of my land (although here this crunchy fried pork rind is called Tsitsaron ). The landscape around me makes me refer to colonial images of Arequipa, Peru , Antigua in Guatemala or Mexico .

Interior courtyards and houses in Intramuros

Church of St. Augustine.

It is no coincidence. Intramuros was founded on the basis of an ancient Tagalog settlement, at the confluence of the Manila Bay and the Pasig River, by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1571, who had arrived from Mexico to the island of Cebu , then head toward the north to get to this place.

Intramuros, Manila. See location in Google Maps.

Intramuros was the capital of the new Spanish colony of the "Felipinas" islands and was a key point on the trade route between Asia and America (Manila and Acapulco) that by means of galleons, realized the dream of Columbus that Spain could reach the West Indies. And while the Americas benefited from products such as mango, silk, paper, envelopes and Manila shawls, Filipinos also received a major Latin American influence, in terms of food products, religion, art, mestizo architecture (of course, in the language as well. A plethora of Spanish words that are included in the modern Filipino language, there are some of Aztec origin, such as Nanay -mom-or, Tatay- dad).

The name of Intramuros evokes the idea of ​​an isolated area, protected from urban sprawl and housing historical treasures within itself, but also gives the idea of ​​protection against attacks by pirates or invaders (in this case Chinese, Dutch and English).

Remains of bastions and fortifications

But Intramuros also involved social exclusion, the separation between those who were inside the walls (white and mestizos) of those natives who lived outside them. It appears however, that in the mid-nineteenth century this characteristic was dissolved into a more inclusive society for people of all races and social strata, as a British traveler tells of the time recorded.

Filipino mestizas in the late nineteenth

Intramuros fortification was designed as a trapezoidal layout, located on a wedge formed by the sea and the Pasig River (now the land reclamation difficults that reading). Inside the walls there is a rectangular gridiron, which included the main square, surrounded by the major powers of the time: the cathedral, the prison the house of the governor. In that sense, Intramuros is similar to other fortified cities in Latin America, such as Lima , for example.

Intramuros in 1784.

Intramuros in the seventeenth century, showing the surrounding area or "extramuros"

Besides the cathedral, the city was dotted with the towers of churches from other congregations, such as Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians.

The Cathedral before 1945

Views of the Cathedral

The streets, like other Hispanic colonial cities, have compact profiles, with no setbacks or front gardens but with balconies and arcades, whose townscape had changed over the years due to successive disasters that devastated the city.

However, the buildings are arranged around courtyards and cloisters, allowing light and ventilation to indoor environments, generating a microclimate and providing an internal social and functional space.

The city is surrounded by fortifications, carried out throughout centuries, and gates, artistically decorated as in the case of the Parian Gate or the Real Gate.

Parian Gate.

Real Gate in 1899.

Video of Intramuros in the Spanish era

Jose Rizal, maximum hero of the Philippine independence, was arrested and shot at Fort Santiago in Intramuros. Before dying, he wrote his immortal poem " My Last Farewell".

Intramuros remained intact until the colonization of the Philippines by the U.S. which conducted widening of streets and gates.

The following video shows the effects of modernization during the American colonization, which transformed to Manila from a "sleepy Spanish village" to a strategic city in Asia, thanks to urban renewal, implementation of services and infrastructure as well as economic development. The documentary says nothing, however, that the colonization took place after a shameful betrayal by the U.S. the Filipinos and the Filipino-American War of Independence took between 200,000 and 1.4 million deaths (that's why I insist that we should always hear both sides of the story).

But I would not be the Americans but the Japanese who cause most damage to Intramuros and Manila in general. After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and in retaliation after an American response, Japan invaded the Philippines (it was actually the pretext that they were expecting). Manila, which was under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, surrendered promptly to avoid the destruction of its historical heritage and loss of lives.

- "Are you going to leave Manila, Douglas?"
- "Do not worry, Carlos. I'll move to Australia for a while, but I shall return."

, A Japanese soldier hides among the shadows of the fortress.

In the 3 ½ years that lasted the brutal Japanese occupation, between 1 and 2 million Filipinos were killed. In their final battle against the Americans (who, in one of those twists and turns of history, became the liberators of the Philippines), the Japanese did not hesitate to kill through the bayonet to the local population, including children and pregnant women, and to set Manila on fire during their withdrawal .

Note: This historical video contains scenes that may impact the susceptibility of some readers.

As a result of the crossfire between the two sides, Intramuros was devastated and all its structures destroyed, except for the Church of St. Augustine. In the Battle of Manila alone more than 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed.

- "That is equal to the deaths by the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki" an old guide said to me on a terrible and not so accurate comparison , but it reflects the deep pain of that experience he had in his own flesh and has accompanied him throughout his life.

Intramuros, Manila in 1932, before its destruction in 1945

Photo courtesy of DebraEve

Today, much of the Citadel has been rebuilt (incidentally, with the help of Spanish American and Japanese cooperation) although it is one of the monuments in the list of endangered heritage by UNESCO. Intramuros is not a depressing, tragic memorial as it is, for example, the island of Corregidor. By contrast, it exudes joy, festivity and frenzy, and while some foreigners are playing golf in the course around the monument, many locals express in their boisterous and extroverted character an optimism for better times. I am aware, however, that this place is not merely historical site, is a symbol of the tenacity and sacrifice of the Filipinos to achieve independence, who finally succeeded in 1946.

SEE ALSO

- SPANISH COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE

• Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, Philippines.
  
• Basilica del Santo Niño, Cebu, Philippines
• Church and cloister of La Compañía, Arequipa, Peru (1578-1619).

To thank you very much for your kind company Visayas in Intramuros.

A GLANCE AT VERUCCHIO, ITALY

ESPAÑOL

Verucchio is a small medieval village perched on a cliff located in the province of Emilia Romagna, and demonstrates the ability of Italians to model the landscape. The Fortess Malatesta and the town around her are so rooted in the rock formation of the which they seem to emerge, as the territory is rooted in the psyche of its inhabitants. One can tell why the Italian word paese (village) shares the same root with the word paesaggio (landscape).

Castello di Verucchio. Photo courtesy of Maurizz .

Verucchio is a medieval village that stands on a cliff 330 m above sea level, dominating an agricultural plain crossed by the Marecchia river  (a curious name from the river, which means "small sea" and stresses its importance for navigation) . From there to the southeast, you can see the towers of San Marino, the smallest and oldest republic in the world, which  is located just 12 km from Verucchio.

To the north, you can enjoy magnificent views of the coast of Rimini, bathed by the Adriatic Sea. These geographical qualities gave Verucchio its name, which comes from "verrucula", which in Latin means "little wart", a metaphor that contrasts the shape of the promontory with the plain that surrounds it: the "land of Rome" or Romania, which later became Romagna.

See location in Google Maps.

While this is a medieval city, archaeologists have found traces of pre-Roman settlements from  the tenth  to the seventh century BC, that demonstrate the  important role that Verucchio had during the Iron Age as a meeting point between cultures from the Adriatic, the Orient and Central Europe.

 

Verucchio is a typical medieval burgo, whose streets are arranged organically, adapting to the topography, and lead to an elongated square called Piazza Malatesta. On one side stands the City Hall, a neoclassical building erected in 1895 to replace an old structure. The arches on the first level afford more space to the square, while offering protection from extreme heat and rain.


Also important are some religious structures such as the Church of Suffragio and neoclassical Collegiata (1864-74), both facing each other perpendicularly, and spatially linked through two separate courts.


However, the city's main landmark is the Malatesta Fortress, also called "Fortress of the rock." Because of its structure, materials, morphology and color, the stronghold seems to be an extension of the rock that supports it.



Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries this Romanesque fortress was developed as the bastion of the Malatestas, an infamous family of condottieri (mercenaries) who had control of the Emilia Romagna province. Dante Alighieri, in his famous work "The Divine Comedy", depicted one of the infernos with the case of Giacionto Malatesta, who killed his wife Francesca and her lover Paolo, after founding them in-fraganti commiting adultery (of course, in Dante's version,  the punished ones in hell are the lovers, not the murderer).

La Rocca Malatesta. Photo courtesy of Riviera di Rimini .

The complex, built in the fifteenth century on the remains of a thirteenth-century fortress, is composed of a series of rooms arranged around an oblong space dominated by a watchtower.

Also noteworthy is the Great Hall, which holds the Malatesta family tree. It is a rectangular room, topped by a roof of wooden beams.


This stronghold was impregnable for centuries, to the point that it could only be conquered in 1462 by Federico Montefeltro, using a deception similar to that of the Trojan Horse.

Federico Montefeltro is this man that Piero de la Francesca portrayed as one of the emblematic examples of Renaissance painting (1465-1466). The particular shape of his nose is because, after losing an eye in a tournament, he had his nose "operated" in order to expand his range of vision. The other side of the face was horribly deformed.

But, aside from these architectural features and interesting buildings, what most impressed me about Verucchio was the way how all the different components of this village were so smoothly and aesthetically articulated, despite coming from different times and belonging to different styles.



The  harmonius dialogue of materials (brick, stone, tiles) are coupled with the balance between built elements and open spaces, cleverly arranged to allow a glimpse views of the surrounding landscape (we've seen a similar case in the city of Siena ).


The built and empty areas are interspersed to allow permeability between the landscape and the urban space.


This delicate balance is both topological, ie allowing foster relationships between components of a place, and topophilical, ie, expressing the intimate bonds between people and the environment.



Perhaps the reader will ask "all this is beautiful, pleasant to the eyes of a tourist, but it must be difficult to live here, far from the amenities and services of modern life." However, the harmonic balance is not only aesthetic but economic and productive. The old town of Verucchio is linked with the new town, which accounts for most services and contemporary buildings.


Planners have had the good sense not to stifle the historical village with a modern growing city but to separate the two settlements by rural areas, avoiding the old city to turn into a museum mummy, but to create a polycentric urban area to supplement the cultural, historical, economic and productive aspects of the territory.

"What makes a good landscape? I confess I do not know. How did they made the landscape of the Italian hills, wooded and planted at the same time? How did they put towers on ridges and fields on the hillsides, villages on the steeper slopes and protected areas on the edges of rivers and streams, in the high forests  in the tops of the mountains?

The crucial issue is that this landscape is not natural. It is absolutely fatto dalla mano degli uomini [made by the hand of men], as a famous brand that Italy coined years ago."

Ruben Pesci, Ambitectura

Verucchio. Watercolor by Carlos O. Zeballos Barrios.

SEE ALSO
- Medieval European towns.

• Coming soon

Cari Caroline, Remo and Auro. Grazie a voi ho potuto conoscere questo posto meraviglioso. Tanti auguri!