Though countless districts exist within the capital (too many even for lifelong Manileños to fully grasp), one such area should be familiar to all and requires no introduction. Nestled in the heart of Manila, Quiapo is over 400 years old, growing alongside its fellow quadrennials: Binondo, Sta Cruz, and Intramuros.
Named after the abundant water cabbage “kiyapo” that once permeated the waterways, the district has always been the crossroads for trade, religion, and cuisine—a true melting pot of culture.
Quiapo has long held much significance to me. I grew up visiting and hearing endless tales about my family’s ancestral house, Bahay Nakpil-Bautista: home of my great-grandparents and the meeting ground for the Katipunan, the revolutionary society responsible for our independence from Spain. My grandmother, Gregoria de Jesus, nicknamed “Oriang” and called the Lakambini of the Katipunan, headed the women’s faction of the revolution.
She hid important documents in her skirts and diverted the guwardiya sibil to make sure secrets were kept and lives protected. She fought bravely alongside the revolutionaries, even wielding a gun herself, and made it through the tumultuous period to live a long and happy life in that very house.
Bahay Nakpil-Bautista sits a street away from Plaza Miranda, one of Manila’s freedom parks and home to Quiapo church. The square came to be known as the site of the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971, in which two grenades were launched at a rally held by the Liberal Party. Coincidentally, my grandfather was present at the horrific occasion, covering the event as media. Returning to his station on a whim, he inadvertently avoided harm's way.
Despite never having lived or studied in the area, I still possess a trove of memories of Quiapo, from shopping trips with my parents and school excursions as a child to bike rides with friends as an adult. In fact, my first foray into writing was about a walking route from Escolta to Quiapo wherein I chronicled my favorite haunts.
These intertwining events are far from unusual. I suspect most people living in the region have just as many memories, direct or indirect, of The Old Downtown. That’s just the nature of the district: as a nexus of all things, as the heart of Manila.
A RE/DISCOVERY
In November, I joined one of Wander Manila’s “Re/Discover Quiapo” walking tours, led by Head Tour Guide Benjamin Canapi. While I am no stranger to the area, one quickly understands why the tour is so aptly named. Wander Manila, initially a Facebook page that shared the Metro’s highlights, has since come to be known as one of the leading touring and experiential companies since its inception in 2016.
According to Canapi, they rose to new heights during the pandemic when they introduced online versions of their dark history tours. Anticipating around a hundred participants, they instead garnered tens of thousands of viewers eager to hear the stories of Manila’s past.
“Now people think I’m the dark history expert. I’m not!” Canapi jokes, citing the chance-happening. He lists the other tours and initiatives they do, though admits their “One Night In Intramuros” offering still holds importance to them for its pivotal role in their surge in popularity. To this day, every October, they have to increase the number of dark history tours due to demand.
Wander Manila was one of the few lucky initiatives to emerge stronger than ever from the pandemic restrictions. Remarkably, this momentum of public enthusiasm shows no sign of waning. Canapi shares that in the early days, it was mostly foreigners who would be interested. Nowadays, the majority of their Manila tours are taken by locals keen on learning about the history surrounding them.
During our tour, photographer and architect Jeric Rustia and I met up with Canapi at the HUB: Make Lab in the First United Building on Escolta Street—a structure that sets precedent for adaptive reuse and houses creatives and artists, as well as one of Manila's earliest third-wave coffee shops. You may have heard of it through the popular Escolta Block Party events, now revived as “Hola, Escolta!”
We began the tour by walking over to Quiapo through Carriedo. As Canapi shared the background of each area we treaded through, we couldn’t help but notice how changed yet unchanged Manila was: Something I’ve come to realize is a hallmark characteristic of the old city.
From an aesthetic standpoint alone, one sees layers upon layers, generations upon generations. Canapi stops at Plaza Miranda and asks us, “What do you think is the oldest skyscraper in Manila?” Of course, I incorrectly guess. He points out the unassuming Picache building in Plaza Miranda, Manila’s actual first modern skyscraper at 12 stories high. Though it is now obscured by vendors and years of business signages, its steel bones, which made its height possible at the time, are still intact.
A CULTURAL CROSSROAD
Weaving through the endless stalls around Plaza Miranda, Canapi points out the proximity in which multiple cultures and religions are to each other. “Where else will you see something like this?” he poses. Amidst Catholic prayer candles and religious figurines are Filipino folkloric anting-anting, amulets, and charms meant to ward off evils. These sit next to unidentified vials of superstitious cures and concoctions. Just a few paces away, one can purchase an array of crystals, Chinese charms, Buddha statues, Mediterranean evil eye beads, and glass talismans.
This extraordinary convergence of civilizations is easily looked over by passersby, but there’s hardly anything like it anywhere else. It’s in these tightly packed stalls that we find the essence of Manila and its identity to be condensed. Tour-takers will notice that parallels only spread outward, in other physical manifestations, throughout the neighboring streets and structures.
Our next stop brought us to the Ocampo Pagoda, a Japanese-inspired structure that was built by lawyer Jose Mariano Ocampo in the 1930s. His admiration for Japan manifested in the ornate design and he completed the concrete residence right before the war. Though the tower withstood the wartime devastation, one wonders if Ocampo’s admiration faltered during the Japanese occupation. Today, the impressive pagoda serves as a boarding house for seamen.
From there, we strolled along the length of Hidalgo Street which boasts stunning arcaded bahay na bato designs, all the way down to San Sebastian Church. Built in the 1800s, the commanding steel structure remains a hallmark example of Gothic Revival architecture in the Philippines. The choice of material was meant to address the earthquakes and fires that razed prior Spanish structures. “Of course, they didn’t realize Manila Bay was just a few kilometers away,” Canapi says. Despite the restoration efforts through the years, the church continues to face the threat of rust and corrosion due to its proximity to the sea.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
The winding neighborhood eventually took us to Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, home of the revolution and of my lineage. Built in 1914, the house remains a classic example of turn-of-the-century architecture and one of the few examples of Viennese Secession aesthetics. Rather than the more common use of Art Nouveau, Bahay Nakpil-Bautista is stylized with the sharp lines of Art Deco, evident in the ventanilla grilles and abstract “kiyapo” motifs on the tracery vents.
My grandmother was of the last generation to live in the house, after which it was adaptively reused as a community center and museum. Nowadays, it is open to the public on Saturdays (and other days with prior inquiry), one of its rooms is also open to the neighborhood children to use as a playroom or tutoring hall, stocked with storybooks and toys.
Despite being declared a National Historical Landmark over a decade ago, much help is still needed to continue repairs and ensure it lasts for another hundred years.
A block away, we entered the Muslim quarter, a serene neighborhood even on a Sunday afternoon, as noted by Canapi. As we approach the Golden Mosque, Masjid Al-Dahab, we see that he’s right. The chaotic bustle fades away, leaving behind a tranquil ambiance. “You wouldn’t know Plaza Miranda is just on the other side!” Canapi remarked.
The Golden Mosque, considered the largest in Metro Manila, was built in 1976 for the supposed visit of Libyan President Muammar al-Gaddafi, though his trip never pushed through. The Muslim community subsequently grew around it, making the mosque a vibrant hub, especially during Jumuah prayers every Friday after noontime which sees up to 22,000 worshippers in attendance.
With the influx of Muslims, of course, comes the influx of a variety of cuisines. All throughout the nearby streets, one will find restaurants and eateries serving Halal-certified Filipino-Muslim food—an absolute must-try for any foodie. For the price of a carinderia meal, one will find what I think of as a unique blend of regional delicacies with hints of Indonesian and Malaysian cuisine.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
At the corner spot Canapi took us for lunch, we ordered plates of kinilaw cooked with coconut milk, beef rendang, and yellow chicken served with fried desiccated coconut (a delicious dish for which no one could agree on a name each time I’ve had it). Other popular options include spiced inihaw na manok and pastil, a steamed rice dish wrapped in banana leaves containing shredded meat cooked with sauteed garlic, onions, and coconut.
While we savored our meal and engaged in discussion about Filipino heritage and our changing landscape, I couldn’t help but think how each place we’d visited, each architectural marvel we walked by, and each meal we tried was so far removed from most of our daily existence. Manila is often overlooked as a travel destination, but within just a few kilometers radius, there is a lifetime’s worth of sights to uncover.
Rustia jests, “I feel like I just took a tour of South East Asia,” and it isn’t untrue. Just a bridge or two away sits Binondo, the world’s oldest Chinatown, in which even more drastically different sights and dishes exist. In fact, Wander Manila does offer a specific Binondo Food Crawl tour, which I would just as quickly recommend.
We concluded the tour after lunch by walking back to the First United Building. The tour hadn’t felt like it lasted several hours thanks to the great company and truly engaging lectures and tidbits Canapi shared. I left reinvigorated about the future of the city in spite of the looming need for cultural preservation.
Though many of the stops shared a common, vital need for restoration and conservation, the rise in interest surrounding Philippine heritage leaves room to be optimistic for the future. New avenues are emerging for people to explore Manila. With the recent extension of the ‘Hop On, Hop Off’ bus to the city of Manila and the tours of various local heritage tourism organizations, the city's secret gems are more accessible than ever.
Despite having been through the area before, each of us uncovered new stories and found significance tucked away in the least likely of places. As the tour name does state, this route holds space for new visitors to discover, and for seasoned Filipinos to rediscover.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in the 2023 print issue of Made in Manila, commissioned by the Department of Trade, Culture, and Arts of Manila (DTCAM) for the City of Manila. Edits were made for the GRID website.
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Wander Manila’s Re/Discover Quiapo tour can be found on their website, alongside One Night in Intramuros, Hola Intramuros, Chinoy Heritage Tour, Binondo Food Crawl, Re/Discover Poblacion, and Manila History Walk. Tours can be arranged upon inquiry with a minimum of three participants and typically last between two to three hours. Fees range from PHP 1,000 to PHP 1,500. Custom tours can be arranged for specific interests.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in the 2023 print issue of Made in Manila, commissioned by the Department of Trade, Culture, and Arts of Manila (DTCAM) for the City of Manila. Edits were made for the GRID website.
