Forgotten Cities: Intramuros - The Walled City

Map of the Walled City (1851)

The Walled City

The oldest district in the Philippines is Intramuros. It's construction began in the late 1500s in Manila. It became a Spanish colony in 1571. The nickname for the district is the Walled City. In its heyday, Intramuros was the government center with a main square called Plaza Mayor. City Hall was located east of the Plaza and facing the Governor's Palace. A terrible earthquake in 1863 destroyed all three buildings and most of the city. The Spanish era influences are still bountiful in present day Intramuros. Recently, however, the Global Heritage fund has concluded that the district is endangered.

1. Identity Crisis

Intramuros struggles to rediscover its cultural heritage. There are very few inhabitants and tourists. Some of the area is blighted and therefore unappealing. The fact that it is dimly lit makes it seem like an unsafe place. The dark areas may pose a safety concern. Other barriers to heritage preservation are fast food establishments.

2. Intramuros Administration

The employees are advocates for the preservation, restoration and promotion of the area. The National Government Agency was created in the late 1970s. Their mission is to make Intramuros socially, economically and culturally vibrant. They have recovered a variety of treasures that are on display at the Casa Manila Museum. The administration makes sure that business offices and residences have legal clearances. The structures also must have Filipino colonial Architectural designs.

3. Intramuros of Memory

Highlights the glorious past and aims to promote Filipino heritage in a positive light. It was first published in 1983. The second publication occurred in 2011. Many fond memories can be renewed and relived. Readers are inspired to assist in the rebuilding process.

4. UNESCO Recognition

San Lucia Gate

Intramuros was home to Spaniards for over 400 years. The Walled City protected the Pasiag River. It was virtually destroyed during World War II. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has declared it a world heritage site.

5. A Good Hotel

The Bayleaf Intramuros opened in 2011. It is a boutique hotel with 5 star accommodations. It has three amazing restaurants. Other features are meeting rooms, a ballroom and a terraza that overlooks the Intramuros Wall. The hotel is a luxury for tourists. It has been part of the revitalization effort.

Intramuros was once a lively place, but now it is experiencing a lull. Some people have declared it endangered and in desperate need of repair. Other priorities have prevented the Filipino government from maintaining it. They have restored the walls and gates, but other sections are in bad shape. Several organizations have been instrumental in preserving and reviving Intramuros. Scientists and conservation experts have assessed the situation. Their approach includes site management, planning, scientific conservation and community development. Implementing rules and regulations to monitor and govern development were adopted in 1981. Fort Santiago, churches, cathedrals and the Plaza de Roma are in relatively good condition. The Puerta Real Gardens have been well-maintained and are quite lovely. Filipinos value the city and want it to come back to life. They hope that it will become a major tourist destination again.

Dominic Coleman loves to write about travel and history. 

Forgotten Cities: Medieval Bath

By Lindsay Townsend

The city of Bath in Somerset, south west England is a world heritage site, famous for its Roman baths and its Regency architecture. I drew on the Roman city of Aquae Sulis and its baths for my historical romance Flavia’s Secret. There is also a hidden city at Bath, the medieval city, parts of which remain even after much has been built over, adapted, added to or superseded by the Regency makeover the city underwent in the eighteenth century.

            We can see the medieval city in John Speed’s 1610 map of Bath. It’s small and walled, with towers and gates. The thermal baths are there, and there are orchards, churches and hospitals. The Abbey is also shown, smaller than in the early Middle Ages when it was extensively added to by Bishop John, who wished to make Bath the seat of his bishopric. This Abbey church was wrecked by fire in 1137 and the whole monastery complex declined, especially after the Black Death in 1439. Later, the rebuilt church occupied only the nave-space of the former Norman cathedral.

            Other medieval buildings of Bath, such as St Catherine’s hospital on Bilbury Lane, the church of St Mary of Stalls and Alsi’s bath have long disappeared, their foundations hidden beneath the later expansion of the city. However aspects of medieval Bath do survive. A section of city walls still stands in Upper Borough and is now protected. Part of one of the ancient gates, the East Gate, remains, close to Robert Adam’s Pulteney Bridge. Many of the Georgian-fronted buildings turn out to have hidden medieval timber frames and structures behind the palladian facades, such as was discovered behind the front of 21-22 High Street. There are medieval cellars, too, such as one in Abbey Church House. The ancient healing place of the Hospital of St John the Baptist, ‘the hospital of the baths’ still partly fulfils its original medieval function.

            I have recreated the medieval city and its baths in my forthcoming historical mystery, An Older Evil, the first of a series featuring Alyson, a widow of Bath.

Lindsay Townsend

http://www.lindsaytownsend.net/

Forgotten Cities: Centralia, PA - Fire Down Below

by Anna C. Bowling



From the air, the once bustling town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, looks like a vast field crossed with ribbons of concrete. Incorporated to provide a home for coal miners in the 1860s, Centralia had its first brush with infamy when the town’s founder, mining engineer Stephen W. Rea, met a grisly end at the hands of the Molly Maguires in 1868.


The true horror, though, was nearly a hundred years to come. In May of 1962, volunteer firefighters attempted to clean the town landfill by setting it alight, as was standard procedure. Fine for the previous years, when the landfill was located elsewhere, but this new landfill, located near the Odd Fellow Cemetery, in an abandoned strip-mine pit changed everything.


Fire seeped through an unsealed opening in the pit and ignited the coal underground, and it continued to burn…and burn…and burn. By 1980, residents reported health problems due to the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide released into the air, polluting the oxygen levels. Only the quick action of his cousin saved a child from being swallowed by a sinkhole that suddenly opened under his feet in 1981, toxic steam billowing from the hole. Despite numerous efforts, countless hours and millions of dollars spent to extinguish the underground fire, the fact became clear. Centralia was no longer fit for habitation.


The US Congress allocated over forty million dollars to relocate Centralia’s residents, with most of them accepting the buyout offers and beginning new lives elsewhere. A few hardy souls remained, despite the government’s warnings, and in 1992, an invocation of eminent domain condemned all buildings within the township. A decade later, the US Postal Service revoked Centralia’s zip code. A time capsule, buried in 1966, remains, with a to-open date of 2016.


Now, nature overtakes the land where homes and businesses once stood, new forest growth taking hold of abandoned ground. Steam rises from a hill beyond one of the town’s cemeteries, and signs warning of the fire and possible ground collapse stand guard at the borders. Still, Centralia, a ghost town of the twentieth century, beckons to urban explorers. Centralia inspired the popular movie and computer game series, Silent Hill, as well as the Dean Koontz novel, Strange Highways. What other stories walk these empty streets?

By Macaddct1984 (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons


Writing historical romances allows Anna C. Bowling to travel through time on a daily basis and make the voices in her head pay rent. Her current release, ORPHANS IN THE STORM, is available from Awe-Struck E-books.

Forgotten Cities: Fatehpur Sikri

By Lisa J. Yarde

In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the vast ruins of a sandstone city reflect a fusion of Hindu, Jain, Persian and Muslim architectural styles. Fatehpur Sikri ('City of Victory'), built on the orders of the enlightened Mughal Emperor Akbar, rises on the ridge of a plateau, overlooking an artificial lake. It is 40 kilometers from Agra, site of the more famous Taj Mahal. Between 1572 and 1585, the number of buildings within the complex ranged over two miles long and a mile wide. Most of the building facades are covered in red sandstone, with pillars, beams and pavilions. The city's planners faced a great challenge in bringing water to such a rocky region, an insurmountable difficulty that partially led to the abandonment of Fatehpur Sikri.

In 1569, Akbar had no sons despite being married and surrounded by concubines. He made a pilgrimage to a renowned Sufi saint, who prophesied that Akbar would have three sons, the first from his wife Jodha Bai. Later that year, Akbar's first son the future Emperor Jahangir entered the world. At his birth, Akbar named the boy Salim after the saint. Two years later, Akbar initiated construction at Fatehpur Sikri in gratitude for his son's life.  The new ceremonial capital soon featured elaborate palaces, surrounded by reflecting pools and cool courtyards of stone. The Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri's great mosque, could accommodate 10,000 people. The great mosque also housed the tomb of the saint who divined the birth of the emperor's sons. The city contained living quarters for the court, army, public servants and ordinary citizens. Governmental buildings included an audience hall, library and state archives.

Akbar was a pious and tolerant ruler. He wanted his city to reflect India's diverse heritage. Islamic-styled vaults and domes roofed posts and beams carved in Hindu and Jain designs. There were two main approaches. From the west, past the artificial lake, the elaborate Elephant Gate gave entry to the city. The Agra gate faced the east. Other entrances, such as the gates of Delhi, Lal, Birbal, Chandanpal, Chor, Ajmere and Tehra pierced the five-mile long wall surrounding Fatehpur Sikri, bounded by hills and the lake as barriers. The city was not fortified, like Agra and could not offer Akbar a stable base against incursions from the northwest. In 1585, the emperor moved his capital to Lahore. He returned once to Fatehpur Sikri in 1601.   


In 1619, Emperor Jahangir sought refuge at the site for three months, after a devastating plague took the lives of most of Agra's residents. Later, Emperor Muhammad Shah also visited, but the city never regained the grandeur it held during Akbar's occupation.    

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by real-life events. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, The Burning Candle, based on the life of Isabel de Vermandois, and On Falcon's Wings, chronicling the star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers. Lisa has also written Sultana and Sultana’s Legacy, novels set during a turbulent period of thirteenth century Spain, where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of a powerful family. She has written contemporary fiction including her first novella, Long Way Home, in which a young couple learns valuable lessons about love, loss and forgiveness, just before tragedy strikes.