UST 1611-1910

Good Afternoon Everyone, for another institutional structure during Spanish era I
present to you the UST (University of Stanto Tomas) Main Building. But before we go
dive in I would like to share to you the glimpse history of the University.
UST was first called the Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario, and
was later renamed Colegio de Santo Tomas, in honor of the foremost Dominican
theologian, Thomas Aquinas and bear its title Pontifical and Royal University of Santo
Tomas, Manila, those are two separate titles FYI. The institution was established
through the initiative of Miguel de Benavides, the third Archbishop of Manila.
The original campus was located in Intramuros, the walled city of Manila. In
1605, Miguel de Benavides bequeathed a modest amount from his personal funds for
the establishment of a seminary-college to prepare young men for the priesthood. So
UST before are very well-known as seminary school. Those funds and his personal
library became the nucleus of the University of Santo Tomas, which was founded in
1611.
In 1624, the Colegio was authorised by the King of Spain to confer academic
degrees in theology, philosophy, and the arts. So, the academic learning of the school is
being expanded.
In 1645, Pope Innocent X elevated the college to a university.
In 1680, it was subsequently placed under the royal patronage of the Spanish
monarchy.
And 105 years later, in 1785 It was King Charles III of Spain who granted it the
title of “Royal University”, for its exceptional loyalty in defending Manila against the
British invasion.
In 1902, Pope Leo XIII declared the University of Santo Tomas a Pontifical
University, While in 1947, Pope Pius XII give it the title of The Catholic University of the
Philippines.
UST (1911-present)
In 1911, the university campus transferred from Intramuros to SULUCAN
property and now the (Espana, Sampaloc, Manila) its present site, which covers a total
of 21.5 hectares in the Sampaloc district.
The university academic life was disrupted only on two occasions: the first was
from 1898 to 1899, due to the Philippine revolution against Spain; and the second time
was from 1942 to 1945, when the Japanese Occupation Forces converted the UST
Main building into an internment camp during the Second World War.

The building was designed in the Renaissance Revival Architecture by Fr. Roque
Ruaño, a Spanish priest-civil engineer, and was considered as the first earthquake-
resistant building in the Philippines. The designer Ruaño was said influenced by Frank
Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel, in Tokyo.
During the years 1922 and 1923, the plans were finally completed. However,
some fine tunings may have been made on the design criteria as a result of the new
lessons learned from the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1, 1923 which flattened
Tokyo and Yokohama. But then eventually, construction began in 1924 and first classes
were held on July 2, 1927.

Considering the years passes, indeed UST have witnessed vast events of our
country`s history making the university to earn another title as the OLDEST
UNIVERSITY IN ASIA.

The structure is a rectangular building having a dimension of 86 meters long and

74 meters wide with two interior courtyards or patios.

The materials being utilized were the common materials used upon building a
concrete structure; usage of reinforce rebars, cement, large-sized bricks, masonry and
some of the materials weren’t locally import some came outside of the country like
Japan.

The most significant feature is the fact that it is actually made up of 40 separate
structures independent from one another with the only opportunity provided by pre-cast
stab flooring. But some
locations of the separations are
now difficult to determine
exactly because of the numerous
cosmetic changes in the
interior of the building which
has undergone over the years.
 Not just Natural disasters and other occurring event rack Fr. Ruaño in the
designing the main building of the UST. Because the lot where the foundation will lay –
the (Sulucan property) consisted of fine sand and loamy clay heavily spread with land
and marine shells, a situation where the land layers moved at different directions during
a tremor. This prompted Fr. Ruaño to combine two methods of laying foundations:
Isolated piers were linked with a continuous slab foundation, so that the structures
above would sway independently of each other during an earthquake. In five years, 200
workers from Pampanga slowly raised 40 separate small towers that provided the basic
framework of what is todays Main Building. Fr. Ruaño kept revising his plans, the latest
after a trip to Tokyo in 1926 where he observed the effects of the recent earthquake
there and in Yokohama.

According to an article written by the former dean of Faculty of Engineering, Manuel

Mañosa, this is how it is divided:

 four corner units

 two midsection units (rear and front entrance)
 one tower (including two elevator cores)
 one entrance canopy
A total of 26 units

 seven units for Padre Noval side

 seven units for Gov. Forbes (now Arsenio H. Lacson) side
 six units for Dapitan side
 six units for España side
 four middle section (or paraninfo)
 two stair section adjacent to tower and elevator core

The Main Building has four floors, plus an additional nine-storey clock tower, which
contained the water tanks for the hydraulic engineering laboratory.
FOR THE FAÇADE. The façade of the building is unpainted and gray. This,
together with the weathering present all over the structure, gives the building an old and
historical aura. The massiveness of the structure indeed gives the structure the
grandeur. A low pitched or flat roof, which are hidden by cornices, short parapet walls or
balustrades

Here is the standing on the pedestals of the fourth floor of the building are
statues symbolizing the spiritual and intellectual aspiration of the University. Designed
by the Italian Francesco Monti, faculty member of the College of Architecture, they were
installed between 1949 and 1953.

Surrounding the clock, the so-called "Tria Haec" are three statues representing, from
left to right:

 Hope (Spe)
 Faith (Fides) (on top of the clock)
 Love (Caritas)

To the right of the Tria Haec are theologians and historians:

 Saint Augustine
 Raymond of Peñafort, O.P.
 Vincent of Beauvais, O.P

To the right of Theologians and Historians, facing Padre Noval Street are the
tragedians:

 Pedro Calderón de la Barca

 Sophocles
 William Shakespeare

Left side of Tria Haec are the Philosophers:

 Aristotle
  Saint Albert the Great
 Plato

Left side of philosophers and facing Arsenio Lacson Avenue are the Playwrights:

 Lope de Vega
 Aristophanes
 Molière