Plaza Moriones, Intramuros

The Plaza de Armas is a public square in Intramuros, Manila. The central plaza of Fort Santiago, it is one of three major plazas in Intramuros, the others being the central Plaza de Roma (also called "Plaza de Armas" at one point in its history) outside the fort grounds, and Plaza Moriones (not to be confused with Plaza Moriones in Tondo), a larger plaza outside Fort Santiago which was once a military promenade before it was closed in the 1863 earthquake that devastated Manila. While Plaza Moriones is outside the walls of Fort Santiago, both plazas are often misconstrued for the other.Historical evidence may suggest that the plaza is the site where the wooden palisade of Rajah Sulayman, on top of which Fort Santiago was built, was located, and was deliberately allocated by Miguel López de Legazpi as the smaller of two open squares in Intramuros, the other being the larger Plaza Mayor (today's Plaza de Roma). Military barracks and storehouses surrounded the plaza, the ruins of which stand today.Currently, the plaza is an open green area surrounded by trees. At the western side of the plaza is the Rizal Shrine, erected in honor of José Rizal, who was imprisoned there prior to his execution in 1896, when the building was still being used as military barracks. The Shrine includes a statue of Rizal which was erected at the center of the plaza. To the north is a cross erected in memory of World War II victims who were buried in a mass grave underneath by the Imperial Japanese Army, while the eastern side contains an eighteenth-century building which was converted into the Dulaang Raha Sulayman (Rajah Sulayman Theater), the venue of seasonal performances by the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA).

The Triumph of Science over Death, also known as Scientia, is a clay sculpture made by José Rizal as a gift to his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt.The statue depicts a young, nude woman with flowing hair, standing on a skull while bearing a torch. The woman symbolizes the ignorance of humankind during the Dark Ages of history, while the torch she bears symbolizes the enlightenment science brings to the world. The woman stands atop a skull, a symbol of death, to signify the victory that humankind aims to achieve by conquering the bane of death through scientific advancement.The original sculpture is now displayed at the Rizal Shrine Museum at Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. A large replica, made of concrete, stands in front of Fernando Calderón Hall of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine along Pedro Gil St. in Ermita, Manila. Another replica is found outside the old Department of Health research facility in Muntinlupa and now incorporated into the design of the ongoing expansion of Festival Supermall.The motif of the statue is also used by various medical associations in the Philippines as their symbol, the most notable of which is the Philippine College of Surgeons.

The Rizal Shrine, also known as the Museo ni José Rizal Fort Santiago (transl. Museum of Jose Rizal in Fort Santiago) is a museum dedicated to the lifework of José Rizal. It is located inside Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines, beside the Plaza de Armas. Fort Santiago served as barracks for Spanish artillery soldiers during Spain's colonization of the islands. The museum is located in the building where Rizal spent his final night and hid his famous poem Mi último adiós (My Last Farewell) in an oil lamp later given to his sister, Trinidad. The shrine is home to various memorabilia such as the shells he collected in Dapitan, books, manuscripts and artwork. In 2014, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines renovated the museum in order to attract younger audience.

The Book Stop Intramuros is a pop-up library located in Plaza Roma, Intramuros, Manila. The unit was designed and conceptualized by William Ti and commissioned in 2016 by the WTA Architecture + Design Studio (WTA). In June 2017, the management and ownership of the Book Stop Intramuros was transferred to the Intramuros Administration.The Book Stop Intramuros is a component of WTA's The Book Stop Project Network which explores how libraries need to evolve, attract and engage contemporary users, and promote reading for the younger generations.

Plaza de Roma, also known as Plaza Roma, is one of three major public squares in Intramuros, Manila. It is bounded by Andres Soriano Avenue (formerly Calle Aduana) to the north, Cabildo Street to the east, Santo Tomas Street to the south, and General Antonio Luna Street (formerly Calle Real del Palacio) to the west. The plaza is considered to be the center of Intramuros. Plaza de Roma is also the location of the Book Stop Intramuros, a local unit of The Book Stop Project.

The Palacio del Gobernador (transl. Governor's Palace) is a government building located in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. It is located southwest from Plaza de Roma and built in its current form in 1976. At present, the building houses the Intramuros Administration, the Commission on Elections and the Home Development Mutual Fund National Capital Region Office. It also previously housed the Bureau of the Treasury until it relocated across Plaza de Roma to the Ayuntamiento de Manila.The site of the present building was where the former residence of the governor-general during the Spanish colonial era was located until an earthquake destroyed it on June 3, 1863. Governor Rafael de Echagüe y Bermingham moved to Malacañang after the earthquake. The Malacañang Palace then became the governor-general's official residence.The building's exterior was used in the Chuck Norris film Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection for a scene set in Rio de Janeiro during a Brazilian Carnaval parade.

The Anda Monument, often erroneously referred to as the Anda Circle after the roundabout it is currently located, is an obelisk monument situated in the boundary of Intramuros and Port Area in central Manila, Philippines. It was erected in honor of Simón de Anda y Salazar, the Governor General of the Philippines from 1770 to 1776. The Anda Circle, the roundabout, is an interchange system at the junction of Bonifacio Drive, Mel Lopez Boulevard, Andres Soriano Avenue (formerly Calle Aduana), and Roberto Oca Street.

The Ayuntamiento de Manila (Manila City Hall) is a building located at the corner of Andrés Soriano Avenue (formerly, Calle Aduana) and Cabildo Street, fronting Plaza de Roma in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. Also known as the Casas Consistoriales and also nicknamed as the Marble Palace, the Ayuntamiento was the seat of the Manila City Council, which consisted of two alcaldes (city leaders), eight oidores (judges), a clerk, and a chief constable. Destroyed in World War II and reconstructed thereafter, the building now houses the offices of the Bureau of the Treasury.

Fort Santiago (Spanish: Fuerte de Santiago; Filipino: Kutà ng Santiago), built in 1571, is a citadel built by Spanish navigator and governor Miguel López de Legazpi for the newly established city of Manila in the Philippines. The defense fortress is located in Intramuros, the walled city of Manila. The fort is one of the most important historical sites in Manila. Several people died in its prisons during the Spanish Empire and World War II. José Rizal, one of the Philippine national heroes, was imprisoned here before his execution in 1896. The Rizal Shrine museum displays memorabilia of the hero in their collection and the fort features, embedded onto the ground in bronze, his footsteps representing his final walk from his cell to the location of the actual execution. It is only a few meters away from the Manila Cathedral and the Palacio del Gobernador (lit. Governor's Palace, currently the office of the Commission on Elections).

The Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, also known as the Manila Cathedral, is a cathedral and minor basilica located in Intramuros, the historic walled city within today's modern city of Manila, Philippines. It is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Patroness of the country. The cathedral serves as the episcopal see of the Archdiocese of Manila as well as the seat of its archbishop. The cathedral was originally a parish church in Manila under the Archdiocese of Mexico in 1571, until it became a separate diocese on February 6, 1579, upon the issuance of the papal bull Illius Fulti Præsido by Pope Gregory XIII. The cathedral was damaged and destroyed several times since the original structure was built in 1581 while the eighth and current structure of the cathedral was completed in 1958.The basilica has merited a papal endorsement from Pope Gregory XIII and three apostolic visits from Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis. On April 27, 1981, Pope John Paul II issued papal bull Quod Ipsum designating the cathedral as a minor basilica by his own motu proprio.

Intramuros (Latin for "inside the walls") is the 0.67-square-kilometer (0.26 sq mi) historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila.Present-day Intramuros comprises a centuries-old historic district, entirely surrounded by fortifications, that was considered at the time of the Spanish Empire to be the entire City of Manila. Other towns and arrabales (suburbs) located beyond the walls that are now districts of Manila were referred to as extramuros, Latin for "outside the walls", and were independent towns that were only incorporated into the city of Manila during the early 20th century. Intramuros served as the seat of government of the Captaincy General of the Philippines, a component realm of the Spanish Empire, housing the colony's governor-general from its founding in 1571 until 1865, and the Real Audiencia of Manila until the end of Spanish rule during the Philippine Revolution of 1898. The walled city was also considered the religious and educational center of the Spanish East Indies. The original campuses of the University of Santo Tomas, the oldest university in Asia, and the Ateneo de Manila, were in Intramuros before transferring in 1927 and 1932 respectively; today the area still contains the main campuses of the University of the City of Manila, the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Mapúa University, Philippine Nautical Training Colleges, the Colegio de Santa Rosa, and the Manila High School. Intramuros was also an economic center; its port in what is now Plaza Mexico was the Asian hub of the Manila galleon trade, carrying goods to and from Acapulco in what is now Mexico. Construction of the Spanish walled city began under the orders of the Spanish imperial government in the late 16th century to protect the city from foreign invasions, replacing the old prehispanic settlement of Maynila along the shores of Manila Bay, by the entrance to the Pasig River. Near the mouth of the Pasig River is Fort Santiago, which, along with a series of bulwarks and gates, fortified the city from repeated invasions. During the early 20th century, under the administration of American colonial authorities, land reclamation and the construction of the Manila South Port subsequently moved the coastline westward and obscured the walls and fort from the bay, while the moat surrounding the fortifications was drained and turned into a recreational golf course. The Battle of Manila in 1945 entirely flattened Intramuros. As the occupying Japanese Imperial Army made their last stand against the victorious efforts of Allied soldiers and Filipino guerrillas, heavy artillery bombardment destroyed its eight churches, walls, universities, houses, and government buildings constructed for centuries in Spanish colonial architecture; only the San Agustín Church, the oldest standing church in the Philippines, survived intact and was later made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Though reconstruction efforts began immediately after the war, many of its original landmarks are still lost today; under the Intramuros Administration, Intramuros is still in the process of postwar reconstruction and revival of its cultural heritage. Intramuros, including Fort Santiago, was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1951. The fortifications of Intramuros, under the name Fortifications of Manila, were declared National Cultural Treasures by the National Museum of the Philippines, owing to its historic and cultural significance. San Agustín Church, one of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the entry Baroque Churches of the Philippines, is located within Intramuros. Several Philippine government agencies are headquartered in Intramuros; the Bureau of the Treasury is located in the Ayuntamiento, the old municipal hall of Manila, while the Commission on Elections is housed in an office building at Plaza Roma at the site of the old governor's palace. Several offices of the Catholic Church, including the Archdiocese of Manila and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, are also found at or near Manila Cathedral.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila (Latin: Archidioecesis Manilensis; Filipino: Arkidiyosesis ng Maynilà; Spanish: Arquidiócesis de Manila) is the archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in Metro Manila, Philippines, encompassing the cities of Manila, Makati, San Juan, Mandaluyong, and Pasay. The cathedral church is a minor basilica located in Intramuros, which comprises the old city of Manila. The Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title Immaculate Conception, is the principal patroness of the archdiocese. The Archdiocese of Manila is the oldest diocese in the Philippines, created in 1579 as a diocese and elevated as a metropolitan archdiocese in 1595. Since its last territorial changes in 2003, the Archdiocese of Manila is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of the same name, which also include five dioceses encompassing most of the National Capital Region (Novaliches, Parañaque, Cubao, Kalookan, and Pasig) and four dioceses of its surrounding provinces of Cavite (Diocese of Imus), Rizal and Marikina City (Diocese of Antipolo), Bulacan and Valenzuela City (Diocese of Malolos), and Laguna (Diocese of San Pablo). In addition, the Archdiocese also serves as the de facto overseer of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines, as well as the Apostolic Vicariates of Puerto Princesa and Taytay in Palawan, all exempt dioceses of the Holy See (with the vicariates under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples). The archdiocese also owns and manages institutions located outside its own territorial jurisdiction and belonging on jurisdictions of other dioceses: two retreat houses in the dioceses of Baguio and Antipolo and seminary in the diocese of Parañaque, as well as the radio station DZRV Radio Veritas 846 kHz and the EDSA Shrine in the diocese of Cubao. Additionally, the archdiocese is a shareholder of the Bank of the Philippine Islands.Its suffragan diocese of Malolos in Bulacan, along with the dioceses of San Jose and Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija (both suffragans of Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan), and Balanga (Bataan), Iba (Zambales) and Tarlac (Tarlac; suffragans of the Archdiocese of San Fernando), form the group of dioceses in Central Luzon. Since June 24, 2021, Jose Cardinal Advincula is the Archbishop of Manila.