Early history Ermita was originally a town called
Lagyo in Tagalog which was close to Manila. During Spanish colonial period, the town was recorded by Miguel de Loarca in 1582: Lagyo was re-christened in the 17th century as
La Hermita (
Spanish for "the
hermitage") after the fact that a Mexican hermit resided in the area and on this site was built a hermitage housing an image of the
Virgin Mary known as the
Nuestra Señora de Guia (Our Lady of Guidance). The hermit-priest's name was Juan Fernandez de Leon, who was a hermit in Mexico before relocating to Manila. The hermitage has since evolved into
Ermita Church, rebuilt several times since the early 17th century. During the Spanish evacuation of Ternate in present-day Indonesia, the 200 families of mixed Mexican, Filipino, Spanish, Papuan, Indonesian, and Portuguese descent who had ruled over the Christianized
Sultanate of Ternate, which included their sultan who converted, were relocated to
Ternate, Cavite and Ermita, Manila.
Upscale neighborhood, City Beautiful movement By the 19th century, although still considered as an "
arrabal", which refers to a
rural area, urban expansion had slowly reached the northern portion of the area mainly due to the development of the
Luneta, also called
Bagumbayan, as a promenade at the coast of
Manila Bay. This attracted wealthy Spaniards and prominent Filipino mestizos and started to build homes in the area, making it a residential hub. The area eventually developed a
creole language based on Spanish called
Ermiteño, which eventually became extinct after the devastation of the
Second World War. However, it still has a
surviving cousin language spoken in nearby
Cavite. The district also saw the construction of the
Manila Observatory by Father Federico Faura during the early 1890s. It was once located on a
street now named after Fr. Faura himself. Ermita, now home to the houses of the wealthy as well as by other classes, gained renewed prominence during the
American and
Commonwealth era. The area, along with others surrounding
Intramuros, had undergone a drastic redevelopment from being the outskirts to urban districts. Ermita was absorbed by the city of Manila when its limits were expanded outside the walled
Intramuros. Its characteristics including the beautiful sunset of Manila Bay attracted
sugar magnates from Pampanga and the Visayas to settle there. The wealthiest Spanish and Filipino families such as the
Zobels and the
Ynchaustis started building sprawling
Art Deco and
neoclassical mansions along Manila Bay. Some of the notable mansions constructed in Ermita during this period includes the
French Renaissance-styled
Alfonso Zóbel Mansion, designed by
Andrés Luna de San Pedro for Alfonso Zóbel and his wife Carmen Pfitz in the corner of
Dewey Boulevard and
Calle Padre Faura, the
El Nido which was designed for American lawyer Eugene Arthur Perkins also by Luna in the style of
Moorish Mediterranean and famously won the "Most Beautiful Home" award in 1928 and was a social club for the American High Commission and the elite society, and
La Casona mansion of Don
Jacobo Zóbel de Ayala and his wife Ángela Olgado, also designed by Luna and won the "Most Beautiful Home" award in 1929. As part of
Daniel Burnham's
plans for Manila, influenced by the
City Beautiful movement during the early 1900s, the district, which was already home to the wealthy's mansions, was envisioned as an exclusive residential area. In addition, the northern portion of the district was envisioned as the center of the Philippine government, redeveloping Luneta into a grand park patterned after that of the
National Mall in
Washington, D.C.. Government buildings housing the legislative, executive and judicial branches were planned and built around the park. A proposed Philippine capitol was also planned to be built at the eastern tip of Luneta Park but never materialized. The
Manila Post Office, the neoclassical buildings that now house the
National Museum of Fine Arts,
National Museum of Natural Science, and the
National Museum of Anthropology were built during this period. Another notable structure in the district during this time was the
Insular Ice Plant, an ice production and storage facility at the southern end of the
Puente Colgante designed in
Mission Revivalist by consulting architect Edgar K. Bourne, who was also the head of the Bureau of Architecture of the
Philippine Commission in 1902. It featured ten-story high smoke stack that became a city landmark, which inspired a common Filipino phrase "
mabilis pa sa alas kwatro", referring to the four o'clock siren from the plant that signals the end of a workday. The district further solidified its status as an upscale neighborhood when it became known as the university district, containing the campuses and dormitories of the
Philippine Normal University (1902), the
Assumption College (1904), the
St. Paul College (1912), the
University of the Philippines (1908), the
Ateneo de Manila (1932), and the
Adamson University (1932). Meanwhile, in the residential portion of the district, American residents started to set up establishments such as the social clubs
Army and Navy Club in a building designed by
William E. Parsons and the University Club. Aside from large mansions, the district were also home to vertical housing designed in Art Deco architecture, such as the Michelle, Angela, Rosario, North and South Syquia Apartments, Admiral and Bayview hotels, which attracted wealthy clientele of locals and foreigners. By this time, Ermita, as well as its adjacent district of
Malate, which both happened to be facing Manila Bay, were now home to Manila's
high society and were filled with large, gilded mansions. It was an enclave of the rich and educated class, specifically the
mestizo elite resulting from the
miscegenation of native and Spanish aristocracies. Ermita is described to be different from other districts in the city because of its "
bourgeois atmosphere". Ermita was the site of documented atrocities during the final weeks of the battle. Some of which were the rounding up of hundreds of women from surrounding neighborhoods who were then raped at the Bayview hotel, the detonation of mines and grenades at the dining hall of St. Paul's College where hundreds of civilians are taking refuge followed by a machine-gun fire on those trying to escape, and the burning of the German Club despite being a neutral site for European expatriates. Among the prominent victims who were executed in the district during the Manila Massacre include the wife and four children of future
President Elpidio Quirino, the
Supreme Court Associate Justice Anacleto Diaz and his sons. The entire national collections of the
National Museum, which are placed at the
Legislative Building and the Bureau of Science Building for safekeeping, were destroyed when during the war. The buildings, instruments, and records of the
Manila Observatory, which was originally built in Ermita in the 1890s, were all destroyed during the battle. This ended its function as the official government weather bureau. As the Americans approach in February 1945, the Japanese Admiral
Sanji Iwabuchi defied
General Yamashita's orders to evacuate and instead turned the south of Manila (including Ermita) into a fortress. The Japanese used the neoclassical concrete buildings in the district such as the
University of the Philippines and the
Legislative Building as a reinforced bunkers. Because the Japanese were entrenched in these thick-walled structures,
General MacArthur eventually authorized the use of heavy artillery which resulted in the systematic leveling of almost every landmark in the district. Between 68% and 85% of Ermita was destroyed during the
Battle of Manila, with an estimated total of 100,000 Filipino civilians killed within the city.
Postwar, transformation to commercial district After the war, the district slowly transformed from a residential area into a commercial area as the upper classes moved to other cities such as Quezon City and Makati. Ermita was rebuilt after the devastation of the war. University life remained vibrant therein. However, as decades passed, Ermita started earning a reputation as the
red-light district of Manila. During the first term of Mayor
Alfredo Lim, 1992–1998, efforts were made to "clean up" Ermita's image and reputation. However, a local city ordinance prohibiting the establishment of motels, lodging houses, and other similar establishments was later declared
unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court. Nightlife in the area dwindled, though it later picked up with the help of the emergence of the nearby
Malate district and the
Roxas Boulevard revitalization efforts along
Manila Bay. ==Transportation==