The
Quezon Memorial Circle is a national park and shrine located in
Quezon CityQuezon City , is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L...
, former capital of the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
(1948–1976). The park is an
ellipseIn mathematics, an ellipse is the bounded case of a conic section, the geometric shape that results from cutting a circular conical or cylindrical surface with an oblique plane...
bounded by the Elliptical Road. At its center is a
mausoleumA mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
containing the remains of
Manuel L. QuezonManuel Luis Quezon y Molina was the first Filipino president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines under U.S. colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century. He is considered by most Filipinos to have been the second President of the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo...
, the second
President of the PhilippinesThe President of the Philippines is the head of state and government of the Republic of the Philippines. The President of the Philippines in Filipino is referred to as Ang Pangulo or Pangulo...
, and his wife,
First LadyThe First Spouse of the Philippines is the unofficial title of the hostess/host of the Malacañang Palace, the nation's residence of its head of state...
Aurora QuezonAurora Antonia Aragón de Quezon , usually known simply as Aurora Quezon, and sometimes as Aurora Aragón-Quezon, was the wife of Philippine President Manuel Luis Quezon and the First Lady of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944...
.
The site was originally intended as the grounds of the National Capitol to be built in Quezon City. While the cornerstone for the structure was laid in 1940, only the foundations were in place when construction was interrupted by the beginning of the Second World War in the Philippines.
The
Quezon Memorial Circle is a national park and shrine located in
Quezon CityQuezon City , is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L...
, former capital of the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
(1948–1976). The park is an
ellipseIn mathematics, an ellipse is the bounded case of a conic section, the geometric shape that results from cutting a circular conical or cylindrical surface with an oblique plane...
bounded by the Elliptical Road. At its center is a
mausoleumA mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
containing the remains of
Manuel L. QuezonManuel Luis Quezon y Molina was the first Filipino president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines under U.S. colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century. He is considered by most Filipinos to have been the second President of the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo...
, the second
President of the PhilippinesThe President of the Philippines is the head of state and government of the Republic of the Philippines. The President of the Philippines in Filipino is referred to as Ang Pangulo or Pangulo...
, and his wife,
First LadyThe First Spouse of the Philippines is the unofficial title of the hostess/host of the Malacañang Palace, the nation's residence of its head of state...
Aurora QuezonAurora Antonia Aragón de Quezon , usually known simply as Aurora Quezon, and sometimes as Aurora Aragón-Quezon, was the wife of Philippine President Manuel Luis Quezon and the First Lady of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944...
.
History
The site was originally intended as the grounds of the National Capitol to be built in Quezon City. While the cornerstone for the structure was laid in 1940, only the foundations were in place when construction was interrupted by the beginning of the Second World War in the Philippines. After World War II, President
Sergio OsmeñaSergio Osmeña was the second President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He was Vice President under Manuel L. Quezon, and rose to the presidency upon Quezon's death in 1944...
issued an executive order stipulating the creation of a Quezon Memorial Committee to raise funds by public subscription to erect a monument to his predecessor, President
Manuel Luis QuezonManuel Luis Quezon y Molina was the first Filipino president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines under U.S. colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century. He is considered by most Filipinos to have been the second President of the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo...
. After a national contest was held for the purpose, a winning design by Filipino architect Federico Ilustre was selected.
Description
The monument would consist of three vertical pylons (representing the three main geographic divisions of the country:
LuzonLuzon is the largest and most economically and politically important island in the Philippines and one of the three island groups in the country, with Visayas and Mindanao being the other two...
, the
VisayasVisayas is one of the three island groups in the Philippines, along with Mindanao and Luzon. It consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the Visayan Sea. Its population are referred to as the Visayans....
, and
MindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also one of the three island groups in the country, along with Luzon and Visayas...
), 66 meters (217 ft) tall (Quezon's age when he died), surmounted by three mourning angels holding sampaguita (the national flower) wreaths sculpted by the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
sculptor
MontiMonti can refer to:Places* Monti, Italy, a small village of northern Sardinia, belonging to the province of Olbia-Tempio* Monti , the first rione of Rome...
. 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
catafalqueA catafalque is a raised bier or platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of the deceased during a funeral or memorial service. Following a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a catafalque may be used to stand in place of the body at the Absolution of the dead.The term...
, modeled after Napoleon Bonaparte's in the Invalides. The gallery and the catafalque below are lit by an
oculusOculus is the Latin word for eye, and the word remains in use in certain contexts, as the name of the round opening in the top of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, and in reference to other round windows and openings....
, in turn reminiscent of
Grant's TombGeneral Grant National Memorial , better known as Grant's Tomb, is a mausoleum containing the bodies of Ulysses S. Grant , American Civil War General and 18th President of the United States, and his wife, Julia Dent Grant...
.
Construction
Construction of the Quezon Memorial was begun in the late 1950s 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. It was finally completed in 1978, the centennial of Quezon's birth. His remains were reinterred 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 Institute manages, and has authority, over the monument itself, while the Quezon City government administers the park.
On April 28, 2005, the remains of Mrs.
Aurora QuezonAurora Antonia Aragón de Quezon , usually known simply as Aurora Quezon, and sometimes as Aurora Aragón-Quezon, was the wife of Philippine President Manuel Luis Quezon and the First Lady of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944...
, widow of the president, were solemnly reinterred in the memorial as well.
Other structures
Planned auxiliary structures, including a 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.