Quezon Memorial Circle

Quezon Memorial Circle
IUCN category II (national park)

Quezon Memorial Shrine
Map showing the location of Quezon Memorial Circle

Location within Metro Manila

Location Quezon City, Philippines
Coordinates 14°39′03″N 121°02′54″E / 14.6507°N 121.0482°E / 14.6507; 121.0482Coordinates: 14°39′03″N 121°02′54″E / 14.6507°N 121.0482°E / 14.6507; 121.0482
Area 22.70 ha (56 acres)
Created 1978
Website http://www.gov.ph/quezonmemorial/

The Quezon Memorial Circle is a national park and a national shrine located in Quezon City, which became the capital of the Philippines from 1948 to 1976.

The park is located inside a large traffic circle in the shape of an ellipse and bounded by the Elliptical Road. Its main feature is a 66-metre (217 ft)[1] tall mausoleum containing the remains of Manuel L. Quezon, the second official President of the Philippines and the first of an internationally recognized independent Philippines, and his wife, First Lady Aurora Quezon.

This location will be the street alignment for the approved MRT-7 named Quezon Memorial MRT Station and the station will be underground.

"Circle", as locals call it, has been undergoing significant changes in order to lure in more tourists both local and foreign. Due to these beautification efforts of the local government the number of visitors is continuously increasing.[2][3]

History

The site was originally intended as the grounds of the National Capitol to be built in Quezon City to house the Congress of the Philippines. The location was also part of a larger National Government Center located around Elliptical Road and the Quezon City Quadrangle (made up of the North, South, East, and West Triangles). The NGC was meant to house the three branches of the Philippine government (legislative, executive, and judicial). While the cornerstone for the structure was laid on November 15, 1940, only the foundations were in place when construction was interrupted by the beginning of the Second World War in the Philippines.[4] After World War II in December 1945, President Sergio Osmeña issued Executive Order No. 79 stipulating the creation of a Quezon Memorial Committee to raise funds by public subscription to erect a memorial to his predecessor, President Manuel L. Quezon.[5][6] A national contest for the Quezon Memorial Project was held 1951. Filipino architect Federico S. Ilustre's design won the contest.[7] Aside from the monument itself, a complex of three buildings, including a presidential library, a museum, & a theater, were also planned to be erected.

Quezon Memorial Shrine

View of the Quezon Memorial Shrine
Quezon Memorial Shrine
Close-up view of the tower
Close-up view of the tower in September 2015
Sarcophagus housing the remains of President Quezon
Sarcophagus housing the remains of President Quezon. The remains were first interred at the Manila North Cemetery before being transferred in the memorial.[8]

The Quezon Memorial Shrine is an art deco-themed monument was designed by Federico Ilustre and was built during the 1950s and serves as the centerpiece of the Quezon Memorial Circle. The 66-metre (217 ft) shrine[1] representing Quezon's age when he died from tuberculosis stands on a thirty-six hectare elliptical lot. It houses an observation deck that can accommodate sixty people at the top through a spiral staircase which gives the visitors a panoramic view of the city.[9]

At the top of the pylons are three mourning angels holding sampaguita (the national flower) wreaths[1] sculpted by the Italian sculptor Francesco Monti. The regional identity of each female angels figure could be discerned in the traditional costume they were clothed with.[10] The winged figures atop the three pylons represented Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.[1] The three pylons would in turn circumscribe a drum-like two-story structure containing a gallery from which visitors could look down at Quezon's catafalque, modeled after Napoleon Bonaparte's in the Invalides. The gallery and the catafalque below are lit by an oculus, in turn reminiscent of Grant's Tomb.

Construction and completion

Construction of the Quezon Memorial was begun in 1952 but proceeded slowly, in part due to the cost of importing Carrara marble, brought in blocks and then carved and shaped on-site. There were also problems associated with the theft of the marble blocks and the management of memorial funds. The monument was finally completed in 1978, the centennial of Quezon's birth. His remains were re-interred in the memorial on August 19, 1979. It was during that time that by virtue of a presidential decree, President Ferdinand E. Marcos mandated the site as a National Shrine. The National Historical Commission of the Philippines manages and has authority over the monument itself, while the Quezon City government administers the park.

The planned auxiliary structures (presidential library, museum, and theater) were never built. Two smaller museums, one containing the presidential memorabilia of Quezon, and the other containing items on the history of Quezon City, were installed within the monument itself. In the 1980s, missing, lost, or incomplete bas reliefs for the outside of the memorial were installed. A development plan was also drawn up and partially implemented, including the building of recreation and dining structures.

On April 28, 2005, the remains of Mrs. Aurora Quezon, widow of the president, were solemnly re-interred in the memorial as well.[11]

Quezon Monument Museum

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Introduction". Quezon Memorial Shrine. Retrieved 27 February 2016. The Quezon Memorial Shrine is dedicated to the unrivalled legacy of the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Manuel L. Quezon. It is a national shrine highlighted by a 66-meter trylon monument at the heart of Quezon City’s most important park. The monument’s three columns and angels bowed in grief, holding sampaguita wreaths, represent Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It has a museum that features Quezoniana relics and memorabilia, and a mausoleum where the remains of Quezon and his wife, Aurora Aragon Quezon, were interred.
  2. ↑ "Developments at the Quezon Memorial Circle". The Local Government of Quezon City. Retrieved 27 February 2016. The Quezon City Government is continuously improving the Quezon Memorial Circle as a people's park and a fitting place for the shrine of a Philippine President. The place is not a forest park. On an ordinary day, when there are no special events there, an average of 8,000 people visit the park daily, with numbers increasing to 12,000 on weekends, and to over a million last December as more families chose to celebrate the holidays in affordable style outdoors.
  3. ↑ Quick Tour in Quezon City Memorial Circle
  4. ↑ Manila Bulletin - War aborts Capitol Building; 61st Anniversary of Quezon City.(Opinion/Editorial) by Isabelo T. Crisostomo
  5. ↑ "Executive Order No. 79; Creating a Quezon Memorial Committee to Take Charge of the Nation-Wide Campaign to Raise Funds for the Erection of a National Monument in Honor of the Late President Manuel L. Quezon". Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Malacañan Palace, Manila, Philippines. 17 December 1945. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "Executive Order No. 12; Reorganizing the Quezon Memorial Committee, Created under Executive Order Numbered Seventy-Nine, dated December 17, 1945". Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Malacañan Palace, Manila, Philippines. 19 August 1946. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "Federico S. Ilustre". Arkitekturang Filipino Online. Art Studies Foundation, Inc., National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and United Architects of the Philippines. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  8. ↑ editor, William Pencak, (2009). Encyclopedia of the veteran in America. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. p. 82. ISBN 9780313087592.
  9. ↑ Lico, Gerard (2008). Arkitekturang Filipino: A History of Architecture and Urbanism in the Philippines. Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press. p. 398. ISBN 978-971-542-579-7.
  10. ↑ al.], Chris Rowthorn ; Greg Bloom ; Michael Day ... [et (2006). Philippines (9th ed.). Paris: Lonely planet. p. 85. ISBN 9781741042894. delete character in |last= at position 1 (help); delete character in |first= at position 1 (help)
  11. ↑ "Quezon, wife 'reunited' after 27 years". The Manila Bulletin. 29 April 2005.

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