Ermita is a district in central Manila, Philippines. It is a significant center of finance, education, culture, and commerce. Ermita serves as the civic center of Manila, bearing the seat of city government and a large portion of the area's employment, business, and entertainment activities.
Private and government offices, museums, and universities thrive in Ermita. It is also home to several tourist attractions and landmarks, including Rizal Park.
Ermita and its neighboring district Malate were originally posh neighborhoods for Manila's high society during the early 20th century, where large, grandiose mansions once stood. Ermita and its surroundings were heavily bombed and flattened during the Second World War after it became a battleground during the Manila massacre. After the war, Ermita and its twin district, Malate, had undergone commercialization, shifting from a sprawling upscale suburb to a commercial district.
Ermita was originally a town called Lagyo in Tagalog which was close to Manila.
During Spanish colonial period, the town was recorded by Miguel de Loarca in 1582:
On the coast near Manila are Laguo, Malahat, Longalo, Palañac, Vakol, Minacaya, and Cavite. All these settlements are in the neighborhood of Cavite, and belong to his Majesty, to whom they pay tribute.
—Miguel de Loarca, Relacion de Yslas Filipinas (1582)[3]
Lagyo was re-christened in the 17th century as La Hermita (Spanish for "the hermitage") after the fact that a Mexican hermit resided in the area and on this site was built a hermitage housing an image of the Virgin Mary known as the Nuestra Señora de Guia (Our Lady of Guidance). The hermit-priest's name was Juan Fernandez de Leon, who was a hermit in Mexico before relocating to Manila.[4]
The hermitage has since evolved into Ermita Church, rebuilt several times since the early 17th century.[5]
During the Spanish evacuation of Ternate in present-day Indonesia, the 200 families of mixed Mexican, Filipino, Spanish, Papuan, Indonesian, and Portuguese descent who had ruled over the Christianized Sultanate of Ternate, included their sultan who converted, were relocated to Ternate, Cavite and Ermita, Manila.[6]
Upscale neighborhood, City Beautiful movement
Luneta Promenade in the late 1890s
By the 19th century, although still considered as an "arrabal", which refers to a rural area, urban expansion had slowly reached the northern portion of the area mainly due to the development of the Luneta, also called Bagumbayan, as a promenade at the coast of Manila Bay. This attracted wealthy Spaniards and prominent Filipino mestizos and started to build homes in the area, making it a residential hub.[7] The area eventually developed a creole language based on Spanish called Ermiteño, which eventually became extinct after the devastation of the Second World War. However, it still has a surviving cousin language spoken in nearby Cavite.[citation needed]
The district also saw the construction of the Manila Observatory by Father Federico Faura during the early 1890s. It was once located on a street now named after Fr. Faura himself.[8]
Ermita, now home to the houses of the wealthy, gained renewed prominence during the American and Commonwealth era. The area, along with others surrounding Intramuros, had undergone a drastic redevelopment from being the outskirts to urban districts. Ermita was absorbed by the city of Manila when its limits were expanded outside the walled Intramuros.[9] The wealthiest Spanish and Filipino families such as the Zobels and the Ynchaustis started building sprawling Art Deco and neoclassical mansions along Manila Bay.
Some of the notable mansions constructed in Ermita during this period includes the French Renaissance-styled Alfonso Zóbel Mansion, designed by Andrés Luna de San Pedro for Alfonso Zóbel and his wife Carmen Pfitz in the corner of Dewey Boulevard and Calle Padre Faura, the El Nido which was designed for American lawyer Eugene Arthur Perkins also by Luna in the style of MoorishMediterranean and famously won the "Most Beautiful Home" award in 1928 and was a social club for the American High Commission and the elite society, and La Casona mansion of Don Jacobo Zóbel de Ayala and his wife Ángela Olgado, also designed by Luna and won the "Most Beautiful Home" award in 1929.[10]
Burnham Plan of Manila, 1905
As part of Daniel Burnham's plans for Manila, influenced by the City Beautiful movement during the early 1900s, the district, which was already home to the wealthy's mansions, was envisioned as an exclusive residential area. In addition, the northern portion of the district was envisioned as the center of the Philippine government, redeveloping Luneta into a grand park patterned after that of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. Government buildings housing the legislative, executive and judicial branches were planned and built around the park. A proposed Philippine capitol was also planned to be built at the eastern tip of Luneta Park but never materialized.[11] The Manila Post Office, the neoclassical buildings that now house the National Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Natural Science, and the National Museum of Anthropology were built during this period.
Aerial view of Ermita District facing Manila Bay
Another notable structure in the district during this time was the Insular Ice Plant, designed by consulting architect Edgar K. Bourne, who was also the head of the Bureau of Architecture of the Philippine Commission in 1902.
By this time, Ermita, as well as its adjacent district of Malate, which both happened to be facing Manila Bay, were now home to Manila's high society and were filled with large, gilded mansions. Manila's wealthiest families used to live in the twin suburbs.
Insular Ice Plant
Manila Massacre
During World War II, being an administrative and social heart of Manila, the district became the primary stage of the Manila Massacre and the subsequent destruction of the district's architectural heritage.
Ermita was the site of documented atrocities during the final weeks of the battle. Some of which were the rounding up of hundreds of women from surrounding neighborhoods who were then raped at the Bayview hotel, the detonation of mines and grenades at the dining hall of St. Paul's College where hundreds of civilians are taking refuge followed by a machine-gun fire on those trying to escape, and the burning of the German Club despite being a neutral site for European expatriates. Among the prominent victims who were executed in the district during the Manila Massacre include the wife and four children of future President Elpidio Quirino, the Supreme Court Associate JusticeAnacleto Diaz and his sons.
The entire national collections of the National Museum, which are placed at the Legislative Building and the Bureau of Science Building for safekeeping, were destroyed when during the war.[14]
As the Americans approach in February 1945, the Japanese Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi defied General Yamashita's orders to evacuate and instead turned the south of Manila (including Ermita) into a fortress. The Japanese used the neoclassical concrete buildings in the district such as the University of the Philippines and the Legislative Building as a reinforced bunkers. Because the Japanese were entrenched in these thick-walled structures, General MacArthur eventually authorized the use of heavy artillery which resulted in the systematic leveling of almost every landmark in the district.
Between 68% and 85% of Ermita was destroyed during the Battle of Manila, with an estimated total of 100,000 Filipino civilians killed within the city.[15]
Postwar
After the war, the district slowly transformed from a residential area into a commercial area as the upper classes moved to other cities such as Quezon City and Makati. Ermita was rebuilt after the devastation of the war. University life remained vibrant therein. However, as decades passed, Ermita started earning a reputation as the red-light district of Manila.[16] During the first term of Mayor Alfredo Lim, 1992–1998, efforts were made to "clean up" Ermita's image and reputation. However, a local city ordinance prohibiting the establishment of motels, lodging houses, and other similar establishments was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.[17] Nightlife in the area dwindled, though it later picked up with the help of the emergence of the nearby Malate district and the Roxas Boulevard revitalization efforts along Manila Bay.
Lawton Park N Ride
Accessibility
The district can be directly accessed by the main roads such as Roxas Boulevard, Padre Burgos Street, Taft Avenue and United Nations Avenue. Lawton Park N Ride, the city's main public transport hub, is located in the district along Padre Burgos Street, as well as the Manila Multimodal Terminal near the Pasig River.
The most prominent feature of Ermita is the historic Rizal Park, one of the largest urban public parks in the Philippines and in Asia. It was a public promenade during the Spanish colonial era which became the site of execution of national hero José Rizal. Today, it contains the Rizal Monument at the center, parts of the National Museum complex to the north which includes the Agrifina Circle, the National Museum of Natural History, and the National Museum of Anthropology, and the Burnham Green, Quirino Grandstand, and the Manila Ocean Park to the south. It also contains numerous gardens and event venues such as a Chinese Garden, a Japanese Garden, the Noli Me Tangere Garden, and the Orchidarium and Butterfly Pavilion.
A notable structure nearby Liwasang Bonifacio is the Metropolitan Theater, a historic Art Deco performing arts theater designed by Juan M. Arellano in 1928. It has been declared as a National Cultural Treasures.
The Arroceros Forest Park is a park on the south bank of the Pasig River, by the foot of Quezon Bridge. It consists of secondary growth forest with 61 tree varieties and 8,000 ornamental plants providing a habitat for 10 different bird species.[18] Being the only nature park in the city, it is often referred to as Manila's "last lung", with lower temperatures in the park that highlights the park's role in combating the urban heat island effect in the city.[19] Another famous green space located in the district is the Mehan Garden, a botanical garden established in 1858 that was turned into a public park.
↑Blair, Emma Helen; Robertson, James Alexander, eds. (1906). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1803. Vol.5: 1582–1583. Arthur H. Clark Company. p.83.
↑"Jesuits In The Philippines (1581–1768)" Page 132 "In 1591 there arrived in Manila a secular priest named Juan Fernandez de Leon. He had led a hermit's life in Mexico and planned to continue it in the Philippines. For this purpose he built himself a retreat near a wayside shrine just outside the city walls which was dedicated to Our Lady of Guidance, Nuestra Sehora de Guia. His hermitage later gave its name to the entire district, which is called Ermita to this day."
↑By Sword and Fire: The Destruction of Manila in World War II 3 February – 3 March 1945, p. 85-86
↑Zamboangueño Chavacano: Philippine Spanish Creole or Filipinized Spanish Creole? By Tyron Judes D. Casumpang (Page 3)
↑By Sword and Fire: The Destruction of Manila in World War II 3 February – 3 March 1945, p. 405
↑Leo van der Velden, Tussen Prostituee en Maitresse, de Hospitality Girls van Ermita, Manila, 1982, ASC-VAZZOA Universiteit van Amsterdam https://hdl.handle.net/11653/book93585
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