Preparatory Study of Fort Santiago Seal and Details, 1983

This piece from the Archives of the Intramuros Administration is an initial study of the details of Fort Santiago. This sheet was drawn by Roland Manio in August 1983, and signed by Architect Ramon Zaragoza and Central Bank Gov. Jaime Laya. The gate had been in ruins since the end of the Second World War.

Fort Santiago was established as Manila’s primary military fortress. It traces its origin to a wooden fort that replaced an earlier wooden palisade after the fall of Rajah Soliman’s settlement Maynila to Spain in 1571. Its present form took shape from 1589 to 1592 when it was rebuilt in stone and named in honor of St. James the Moor-slayer (Santiago Matamoros). Because of its strategic location at the mouth of the Pasig River, it became the headquarters of four foreign armies through four centuries: Spain, 1571-1762, 1764-1898; Great Britain, 1762-1764; the United States, 1898-1941, 1945-1946; and Japan, 1942-1945.

The gate was destroyed during World War II and lay in ruins until the 1980s when it was restored by IA.

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