Rizal Shrine

The former military headquarters of the Spanish colonial government. Although the fort sustained very heavy damage during the 1945 Battle of Manila, several key portions of the compound were subsequently restored - including its iconic gate with a wooden relief featuring Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moor-slayer), the patron saint of Spain. It is now considered a major landmark and one of Manila's most popular tourist attractions, partly because José Rizal - the national hero of the Philippines - was imprisoned here prior to his execution on 30 Dec 1896. The Rizal Shrine (see Museums, below), a small museum dedicated to his life and work, is housed in a restored section of one of the fort's former barracks. ₱75, ₱50 students/children.

This eight-storey office building was erected in the late 1970s on the site of the Spanish Governor-General's official residence, which was destroyed in a powerful 1863 earthquake that also damaged many other structures in Intramuros. Sadly, the hulking modern building looks almost nothing like its grand 19th-century namesake.

Bounded by the Manila Cathedral to the southeast, the Palacio del Gobernador to the southwest and the Ayuntamiento to the northeast, this small plot of land is Intramuros' very own plaza mayor (main square). At the centre of the plaza stands a monument to King Carlos IV of Spain, cast in 1808 and erected in 1824 by a colonial government grateful for his having dispatched a shipment of smallpox vaccine to the Philippines.

Destroyed and rebuilt several times over, the Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila and one of the most important churches in the Philippines. The current Neo-Romanesque iteration (consecrated in 1958) is the eighth - or sixth, depending on who's counting - to stand on the site since 1581, succeeding the 19th-century structure that was levelled to the ground during the 1945 Battle of Manila. A small exhibit detailing the Cathedral's history can be found in one of the side chapels near the entrance. The church was reopened in 2017 after a major renovation, and so Masses are once again being offered daily; refer to the official website for a full schedule of liturgical services. Tours are also available upon request. Free entrance, but donations are appreciated.

Completely rebuilt in 1884 after the disastrous earthquake of 1863, the seat of Manila's colonial-era city council once had some of the grandest interiors in Intramuros. The 1945 Battle of Manila left it a gutted shell, of which only parts of the first storey survived; it then suffered the indignity of serving as a parking lot. A major reconstruction project that started a few years ago is finally nearing completion, with the façade of the historic building now having regained much of its pre-war glory.

Built in the 1820s and reconstructed after the 1863 earthquake, this building once housed the Spanish colonial government's customs offices and other administrative units. It was damaged during the war but survived to re-enter government service - at one point housing the Central Bank of the Philippines - only to fall victim to a 1979 fire that caused massive destruction. There are plans to restore the building (whose exterior walls have survived more or less intact) for the use of the National Archives.