A day before the formal signing of Sisterhood Agreement between my
beloved home town Sta. Cruz and the city of Mandaluyong, I beat the opportunity
of revisiting the historic district of
Intramuros. My last stay in this place was way back 2008 when I attended a
national arts workshop by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and
since then I have been yearning to go back to Intramuros in order to get better
photo perspectives of the significant structures of the place known as “The
Walled City.”
With the very limited time I was able to visit very few sites in
Intramuros, particularly the two famous churches; Manila Cathedral and San
Agustin Church, two adjacent religious landmarks that left a remarkable footprints
in the Roman Catholicism of the country.
As usual, the Manila Cathedral lived up to its billing as one of the
most physically-attractive church
structures in the country that serves as the episcopal seat of the Archbishop
of Manila, and has been considered the center of the country’s Christian
Catholic group.
On the other hand, San Agustin Church is decorated with tremendous historical
facts. As reflected in the marker outside of its premise, it is a UNESCO World
Heritage site under the collective title Baroque Churches of the Philippines
along with the other three churches. Although already refurbished several
times, the structures of St. Agustin Church are made of stones, as well as some
portions of the San Agustin Museum which is located just beside the church.
San Agustin Church has dramatically chronicled the historical timeline
of the country, from the Spanish period up to the contemporary times. The
interior designs are manifestation of mix influences from European
architectural dwellings. There are details of the intense evolution of the
church mirrored in between the building’s walls which could somehow brought us back
down memory lane, very sentimental and
at the same time educational.
There are other buildings in Intramuros that are very alluring but I
was not able to closely visit them one by one because I ran out of time. As I hiked
back to the gateway I got some shots of the following sceneries and sights
which made Intramuros an ultimate destination in the National Capital Region.
As I walked through some familiar thoroughfares
of Intramuros I realized that this place represents very well with the colourful
past of the Philippines dating back from the Spanish Period. And with the way the Intramuros Administration
managed the area I believed this is a place that will take us through a
different mind-set about how we figure out Manila as a busy and congested
metropolis.
