Intramuros: History and Landmarks

Intramuros: The Fortress City

• The center of civic and ecclesiastic rule during the Spanish period, surrounded by a strong defensive wall for protection and a military fort at the mouth of the Pasig River.
• The city was designed to serve as a protective hub for the Spanish colonial government.

Important Structures in Intramuros

• Beaterio: a structure under a religious order providing care for orphans.
• Hospital: a building used to give medical and surgical care to the sick and injured.
• Tulay: a structure built above an obstacle or depression, enabling passage of a pathway or roadway.
• Balwarte: a projecting part of the fortification, round or polygonal in plan, intended to have a number of firing directions for both cannon and other weapons to defend the adjacent perimeter.

Education in Intramuros

• Es kwela: a building or complex devoted to educational studies at differentiated levels.
• There were ten schools in Intramuros during the Hispanic Period, all managed by religious groups.

Religious Institutions

• Monasteryo: a building where religious people, monks or nuns, retire from the world for prayer and contemplation.
• Katedral: the principal church of a diocese containing a "cathedra" or bishop's throne.

Government and Administration

• Ayuntamiento: the chief administrative building with offices for both the gobernador-heneral (head of the country) and the alcalde (head of the city) with their regidores (councilors).
• The Ayuntamiento of Manila has a space for the prison.

Trade and Commerce

• Adwana: a building designated for the payment of customs and duties and where vessels are entered and cleared.
• Embarcadero: an area used as a landing place for ships and other water vessels.
• Almasenes: a building constructed near a port for storing goods or a space inside civic building, like casa real, to store tributes in form of goods.
• Bodega ng armas/Maestranza: a building for both manufacturing and storing weapons and ammunitions.

Public Spaces

• Plasa mayor: an open public square that is adjacent to both major roads and prestigious civic and religious buildings.
• The plaza mayor of Intramuros is called Plaza Roma.