People's Park in the Sky

Last updated
People's Park in the Sky
People's Park in the Sky.jpg
People's Park in the Sky
Type Urban park
Location Mount Sungay in Calabuso North, Tagaytay, Cavite, Philippines
Coordinates 14°8′29″N121°1′19″E / 14.14139°N 121.02194°E / 14.14139; 121.02194
StatusOpen to public

The People's Park in the Sky, often simply called People's Park and originally named Palace in the Sky, is a historic urban park in Tagaytay, Cavite, Philippines.

Contents

The park was converted from an unfinished mansion, known as the Palace in the Sky, initiated during the Marcos era to host the state visit of US President Ronald Reagan, then discontinued when Reagan canceled his visit. The conversion was made in 1986 after Marcos was replaced by Corazon Aquino as president. [1] The incomplete scaffolding of the mansion remained intact. [1]

The Shrine of Our Lady, Mother of Fair Love and a Doppler weather radar station maintained by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) are also within the park. [2]

History

People's Park in the Sky on Mount Sungay, as seen from Picnic Grove People's Park in the Sky from Tagaytay Picnic Grove.jpg
People's Park in the Sky on Mount Sungay, as seen from Picnic Grove

During the Marcos administration, First Lady Imelda Marcos decided to build a mansion on government-owned land atop Mount Sungay (also known as Mount Gonzales), the highest point in the province of Cavite. The summit had been previously used by the Bureau of Air Transport as a radar station.

Construction on the mansion began in 1981. The height of the summit, originally 752 m (2,467 ft), made the work difficult. Roads were specially built to enable supplies to reach the summit. Farmers living on the mountainside were asked to relocate. The summit was leveled, cutting down its height to 709 m (2,326 ft). Construction of the mansion was hastened when US President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to visit the Philippines in November of 1983. It was reported that the Marcos administration planned to accommodate Reagan at the mansion. The construction halted after the White House canceled the trip.

Following the deposition of the Marcos regime in the People Power Revolution in February 1986, critics described the unfinished mansion as a symbol of the Marcos administration's excess. [1] [3]

Marian chapel

The chapel at the park People's Park in the Sky chapel.JPG
The chapel at the park

The Shrine of Our Lady, Mother of Fair Love is located within the People's Park in the Sky. The shrine was installed on December 15, 1974, with the installation of the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the child Jesus by Hernan D. Reyes, aided by four high school students and two workers. During the construction of the Palace in the Sky in 1981, workers were unable to blast a huge rock containing the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with several dynamite blasts. The rock was left intact, after the discovery of the image. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrines to the Virgin Mary</span> Typically Catholic shrines

A shrine to the Virgin Mary, or Marian shrine, is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion. Such locales are often the destinations of Christian pilgrimages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cavite</span> Province in Calabarzon, Philippines

Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite, is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Located on the southern shores of Manila Bay and southwest of Manila, it is one of the most industrialized and fastest-growing provinces in the Philippines. As of 2020, it has a population of 4,344,829, making it the most populated province in the country if the independent cities of Cebu are excluded from Cebu's population figure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tagaytay</span> Component city in Cavite, Philippines

Tagaytay, officially the City of Tagaytay, is a 2nd class component city in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 85,330 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception</span> Catholic church in Washington, D.C., U.S.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a Catholic minor basilica and national shrine in Washington D.C.. It is the largest Catholic church building in North America and is also the tallest habitable building in Washington, D.C. Its construction of Byzantine and Romanesque Revival architecture began on 23 September 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EDSA Shrine</span> Roman Catholic church in Quezon City, Philippines

The Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace, Our Lady of EDSA, or more popularly, the EDSA Shrine is a small church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila located at the intersection of Ortigas Avenue and Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in Barangay Ugong Norte, Quezon City. The church is also called the Archdiocesan Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace or Mary, Queen of Peace Quasi-Parish, although these names are seldom used. It is also a declared Important Cultural Property by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of the Pillar</span> Title of the Virgin Mary

Our Lady of the Pillar is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 40 while he was preaching in what is now Spain. Those who adhere to this belief consider this appearance to be the only recorded instance of Mary exhibiting the mystical phenomenon of bilocation. Among Catholics, it is also considered the first Marian apparition, and unique because it happened while Mary was still living on Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe</span>

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a Catholic shrine located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The 100-acre (0.40 km2) grounds include a visitors' center and outdoor devotional areas such as a rosary walk, Stations of the Cross, and a votive candle chapel. Mass and the sacrament of Penance are celebrated daily by Norbertine canons of St. Michael's Abbey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Imus</span> Roman Catholic diocese in the Philippines

The Diocese of Imus is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Philippines that comprises the entire province of Cavite. By the virtue of the apostolic constitution "Christi Fidelium," promulgated by Pope John XXIII, the diocese was canonically erected on November 25, 1961, when it was excised from the Archdiocese of Manila and the then-diocese, now Archdiocese of Lipa. The diocese was formally inaugurated on April 26, 1962 and its first bishop, Artemio Gabriel Casas, took canonical possession of its administration. Imus Cathedral, located along General Castañeda Street in the poblacion of Imus, serves as the see of the diocese. It is one of twelve cathedrals founded by the Order of Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of Porta Vaga</span> Marian apparition, Patroness of the Province of Cavite and Cavite City

Our Lady of Solitude of Porta Vaga also known as the Virgin of a Thousand Miracles is a Roman Catholic Marian title of Mary, mother of Jesus, based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1667 by a Spanish soldier during a night storm when he watched over the gates of Porta Vaga, later on the next day the icon was discovered in the seashore of Cañacao bay. The Virgin of Soledad is a venerated Marian icon associated to the Our Lady of Solitude. The province of Cavite and the city of Cavite consider her as its patroness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima</span> Roman Catholic church in Valenzuela, Philippines

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima(Filipino: Pambansang Dambana ng Mahal na Birhen ng Fatima) is a Roman Catholic parish church and national shrine in the Diocese of Malolos in the Philippines. It serves as a Philippine apostolate of Our Lady of Fatima in Fátima, Portugal, which is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. The shrine is located near the Our Lady of Fatima University campus in Marulas, Valenzuela City in Metro Manila, Philippines. The shrine is one of the three major pilgrimage sites in the Diocese of Malolos, with the National Shrine of St. Anne in Hagonoy and the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Marilao as the other sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage</span> Image of Mary, mother of Jesus

Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, also known as Our Lady of Antipolo and the Virgin of Antipolo, is a seventeenth-century Roman Catholic wooden image of the Blessed Virgin Mary as venerated in the Philippines. This Black Madonna is enshrined in Antipolo Cathedral in the Sierra Madre mountains east of Metro Manila.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of La Naval de Manila</span> Venerated title of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary – La Naval de Manila is a venerated title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with the same image in the Philippines. Pious believers believe that the Virgin's intercession under this title helped to defeat the invading forces of the Protestant Dutch Republic during the Battles of La Naval de Manila in 1646.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine, Villianur</span> Church in Puducherry, India

Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine is a Catholic Marian shrine and a parish church in Villianur, Puducherry, India. The shrine is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Lourdes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imus Cathedral</span> Roman Catholic church in Cavite, Philippines

The Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of the Pillar, commonly known as the Imus Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral church in the city of Imus, in the province of Cavite, Philippines. The church serves as the seat of the bishop of the Diocese of Imus, the diocese that has jurisdiction over the entire Civil Province of Cavite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Sungay</span> Volcanic mountain in the Philippines

Mount Sungay, also known as Mount Gonzales, is a mountain in the province of Cavite in the Philippines. Located in eastern Tagaytay, the inactive stratovolcano is the highest point in the province of Cavite, at 709 metres. The slopes of the mountain are the source of the San Cristobal River that flows from the mountain to Silang, Cavite down to its mouth at Laguna de Bay in Calamba, Laguna.

Cabuyao Mansion is a government-owned mansion located at Brgy. Casile, Cabuyao. The mansion was built in the 1980s during the administration of the former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. It was then sequestered in 1987 as part of the ill-gotten properties that were acquired by the Marcos family. In 2010, the Sandiganbayan ordered the return of the property to the Marcos Family. However, in 2017 the Supreme Court of the Philippines released a hold order on this, and the property is still currently under control of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapel of the Apparitions</span> Catholic church in Portugal

The Chapel of the Apparitions is a small chapel located in Cova da Iria that was first constructed in 1919, and again in the early 1920s, to mark the exact location where three little shepherd children reported having received the famous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal.

The term "edifice complex" was coined in the 1970s to describe Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos' practice of using publicly funded construction projects as political and election propaganda.

The Tagaytay–Calamba Road is a two- to four-lane, secondary and tertiary road in Laguna and Cavite, Philippines. Albeit discontinuous, it connects the city of Calamba in Laguna and the city of Tagaytay in Cavite. The road's missing link that will connect its Tagaytay and Calamba sections is under construction.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of the Visitation of Guibang, commonly known as Our Lady of Guibang Shrine, is a Roman Catholic parish church and pilgrimage site situated at Brgy. Guibang, Gamu, Isabela, Philippines. The shrine is consecrated to the pilgrim image of Blessed Virgin Mary of Guibang.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Marcos` Mountain Palace Is The House That Arrogance Built". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  2. Pagasa – Dost – Dost Service Institutes Archived 2014-01-03 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Afinidad-Bernardo, By Deni Rose M. "Edifice complex | 31 years of amnesia". newslab.philstar.com. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  4. Our Lady, Mother of Fair Love (Plaque). Plaque at the Shrine of Our Lady, Mother of Fair Love, People's Park in the Sky, Tagaytay.