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Intramuros
Intramuros, located along the southern bank of the Pasig River, was built by the Spaniards in the 16th century and is the oldest district of the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Its name, in Latin, intramuros, literally "within the walls", meaning within the wall enclosure of the city/fortress, also describes its structure as it is surrounded by thick, high walls and moats. During the Spanish colonial period, Intramuros was considered Manila itself.
The Manila Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica (also known as the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and informally as Manila Cathedral) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila. It is located in the Intramuros district of Manila in the Philippines. The cathedral has been damaged and destroyed several times since the original cathedral was built in 1581; the sixth and current incarnation of the cathedral was completed in 1958 and was consecrated as a minor basilica in 1981. It is dedicated to Saint Mary under the title Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the Philippines.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Cathedral
Palacio del Gobernador
Residence and office of the governor general. Although the site for the governor’s palace facing the Plaza Mayor had been determined early on, no structure was built on it until the late 17th century. In the beginning, the governor’s residence was apparently built nearer Fort Santiago, facing Plaza Militar.
The palace was rebuilt at its present site by Gov. Gen. Fausto Cruzat y Góngora (1690-1701) following an atrial plan, divided by a wing that bisected the open atrium. The southern half housed the governor’s residence on the superior floor and the Secretaría de Gobierno on the lower floor, while the northern half housed the Real Audiencia or Supreme Court. The Audiencia occupied the northern wing until it acquired a building of its own in 1788.
In 1850, Gov. Gen. Narciso Claveria gave the palace a new façade in the Neoclassical idiom. The earthquake of 1863 damaged the palace. Plans to restore it were abandoned when another earthquake in 1880 struck Manila. By then the governor had transferred residence to Malacañang in the San Miguel district, upstream of the Pasig.
The building was in ruins until its remaining walls were integrated into 14-story building, called Palacio del Gobernador. The structure houses government offices and the Intramuros Administration.
- http://intramuros2007.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/palacio-del-gobernador
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The Philippines are an archipelago of more than seven thousand islands off the southeast coast of Asia. Only half of these islands have been named and roughly one thousand are inhabited. Look at how beautiful they are! People first arrived here from the mainland around 25,000 B.C. by crossing a land bridge which existed at the time.The name comes from Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal, who explored the Philippines in 1521. He claimed them in service of Spain, naming them after Prince Philip. Spain controlled the Philippines for the next 350 years until the Philippine Revolution of 1896.Here's a picture of Fort Santiago, where the national hero Jose Rizal was imprisoned prior to his execution. He was a poet and novelist who supported peaceful reform, rather than violent revolution, against the Spanish government.This is one of poems in which he describes the creation of the world, as a gift to his mother:"Say they that tell of the world, the first dawn of the sun, the first kiss that his bosom inflamed, when thousands of beings surged out of nothing, and peopled the depths, and to the heights mounted, to wherever his fecund kiss was implanted"Violent revolution broke out anyway and the Philippines changed hands from Spanish, to American, to Japanese control over the next fifty years. Following World War Two they finally became an independent republic.Back to the beautiful ocean! You can dream about the Cafe Del Mar resort next time you find your screen saver kicking in when you're still sitting at the desk staring blankly. There's a series of DJ mixes with this title but I don't know if it refers to the same place. I would not be surprised.Annnnd to really get you buying your plane tickets...the sunset over Borocay White Beach!Text by Steve Smith.
