More often than not, when we talk about Manila’s faith heritage, we talk about the city’s Catholic heritage. That should not be a surprise given that Catholicism is pretty much ingrained in our culture since the Spanish colonial period and that Manila, Intramuros in particular, was the epicenter not only of Catholicism in the country but in Asia as a whole, with its 7 churches located within the city walls. Overlooked in all this is the city’s religious heritage beyond Catholic Manila. Granted they are not as old as the Catholic churches, they have an interesting story to tell as well. One of them is the subject of today’s post,…
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Ideas Immortalized: Telling the Story of the University of the Philippines
The University of the Philippines is one institution that needs no introduction. Just mention UP and people express their awe to show how much they look up to this university, the country’s premier university where many of the country’s brightest minds sprang from. UP’s status and prestige today makes one overlook how far it has come ever since it was established more than a century ago. Then again, not many know the story of the university’s early years, the struggles and the triumphs it encountered during that pioneering period in UP’s history. That was, until the Museum of a History of Ideas opened in UP’s Manila campus last October 22, 2014.
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Viva Manila: Luneta Hotel Reborn
This is the 4th part of a series covering Carlos Celdran’s Viva Manila tour. Click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 One of the stops of the Carlos Celdran Viva Manila tour was a visit to a historic hotel near Rizal Park that is not the Manila Hotel. I am of course talking about the Luneta Hotel which first opened in 1918. Designed in the French renaissance style by Spanish architect Salvador Farre, the hotel with its charm and elegance, rivaled the Manila Hotel as a popular place of stay among guests, especially notable ones like dignitaries, elite, and marine merchant personnel. Dwight D. Eisenhower, during his stint in the country…
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Viva Manila: Manila’s Art Deco Hotel
This is the 3rd part of a series covering Carlos Celdran’s Viva Manila tour. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. There are, sad to say, only a few hotels from the prewar years that have managed to survive and serve as living monuments to a bygone glorious era that we had. One of them was part of the itinerary of the recent Carlos Celdran Viva Manila tour. Meet the Miramar Hotel, a hotel built in the Art Deco style of architecture built in the 1930s. As one can see, the hotel has done a good job preserving many of its original elements to be appreciated by…