Fort Santiago Manila, Philippines by Asiatravel.com

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Fort Santiago (Spanish: Fuerza de Santiago) is a defense fortress built for Spanish conquistador, Miguel López de Legazpi. The fort is part of the structures of the walled city of Intramuros, in Manila, Philippines.

The location of Fort Santiago was once the site of the palace and kingdom of Rajah Suleiman, a Muslim chieftain of pre-Hispanic Manila. It was destroyed by the conquistadors(Martin de Goiti) upon arriving in 1570, encountering several battles with the Islamic natives. The Spaniards destroyed the native settlements and erected the Fuerza de Santiago in 1571.

The first fort was made out of log structures and earth. Most of it was destroyed in the Spanish-Chinese War of (1574-1575), by invaders of Chinese pirates led by Lim Ah Hong who besieged the area which resulted to death of de Goiti. The Spaniards fought a fierce conflict and eventually drove the pirates out up to Pangasinan where the last conquistador (Juan de Salcedo) avenged the death of Goiti by capturing Lim Ah hong and burnt to death together with his subordinates. In 1589 the fort was constructed with hard stone and finished in 1592. It became the main fort for travels and spice trade to the Americas and Europe for 333 years. The famous Manila Galleon trade to Acapulco, Mexico started sailing from the Fuerza de Santiago.

The fort is shielded by 22 feet (6.7 m)-high walls, with a thickness of 8 feet (2.4 m) and an entrance measuring 40 feet (12 m) high. It is located at the mouth of the Pasig River and it was once the premier defense fortress of the Spanish Government in the Philippines. During World War II it was captured by the Japanese, and sustained heavy damage from American and Filipino mortar shells during the Battle of Manila in February 1945. It was later restored by the Intramuros Administration during the 1980s. Today the fort serves as a museum which houses well-preserved legacies of the Spanish government, José Rizal (which is called the Plaza de Armas), Rizal Shrine, and the prison dungeons for criminals used by the Spanish officials.

José Rizal, the Philippines' national hero, was imprisoned in the fort before his execution in 1896. the site features, embedded onto the ground in bronze, his final footsteps representing the walk from his cell to the location of the actual execution.

Info Taken from Wikipedia.com
Credits to Wikipedia.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Santiago

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[TrueHonestHistory]

Rizal did not call for "Philippine independence". He called for greater autonomy for the Philippines from the Madrid government as well as representation in the Spanish Parliament for the islands.

[TrueHonestHistory]

The Filipino greeting is not "Mabuha-" but "MABUHAY".

[pug201010]

This was the last travel location before the tragedy on August 22 2010.

[RepublicadeFilipinas]

¡Un saludo amigos! Desde el @ Canal de Filipinas en idioma español.

[yugariga1254]

I wish i would go to the phillipines

[TrueHonestHistory]

Legazpi did not build Intramuros "after his defeat of the Muslims". The muslims were in Mindanao, not Luzon. Plus Legazpi did not arrive in Manila until 1571 so he couldn't have built Intramuros in 1521. Get your historical facts straight

[TrueHonestHistory]

Why didn't he mention the "calesa" he was riding, or horse-drawn chariot was a typical means of transportation during the Spanish times?

Why didn't he say that San Agustin, just across the road from that museum, built by the Spaniards in 1607, is the oldest church in the Philippines?

I wish someone did a more decent, educational and objective documentary about Manila.

[TrueHonestHistory]

This is the typical superficial documentary about the Philippines: "300 years of Spanish rule, 50 years of American rule"... and then some sensationalist stuff about dungeons, prisons, and the evil Spaniards killing Rizal... And on and on and on..

Why didn't the guy mention that Intramuros is a beautiful heritage site boasting Spanish-Philippine architecture, and that the authorities are striving to rebuild it according to its original style, before it was destroyed during WWII?