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Fort Santiago

Fort Santiago

Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas & Fernando Valdés y Tamon

Photo: Elmer B. Domingo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Intramuros, Manila, Philippines
Client / Owner
Miguel López de Legazpi
Year
Completed 1593
Access
Public
Style
—

Fort Santiago in Manila was built by Miguel López de Legazpi for the newly established city. The first fort followed Manila's founding on June 24, 1571 and used palm logs and earth. Stone construction ran from 1590 to 1593 in volcanic tuff from Guadalupe. The infobox lists Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas as architect, but the text names him as governor-general.

The fort has a perimeter of 2,030 feet (620 m), with walls 22 feet (6.7 m) high and 8 feet (2.4 m) thick. The infobox says bastioned fort, but the text says the original form had no bastions and the bastioned city-facing front came later. A moat links to the Pasig River.

Japanese forces used the prisons in World War II, and many prisoners died. José Rizal was imprisoned here before his 1896 execution, and the Rizal Shrine is here. The Intramuros Administration has managed the fort since 1992. The text gives no hours.

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