The serenity of Paco Park Cemetery

Today's feast day (All Saints' Day) reminds me of my family's brief afternoon tour last summer in charming Paco Park, one of the country's most well known parks/cemeteries located in the Manila district of the same name. And as its name and appearance suggest, the virtual garden no longer functions as a cemetery but as a park. However, the Spanish-era burial niches are still there.

View of the entrance from Calle Bernardino Nozaleda. Now called General Antonio Luna, this street was named after the 25th Archbishop of Manila who was also the last Spanish archbishop of  the Archdiocese of Manila.

This place is no ordinary park nor cemetery. It's a National Historical Shrine.

When viewed from above, Paco Park is a bit circular in shape, but with its northeastern end jutting outwards in a square (which reminds one of the famous Shell Oil Company logo). The whole site, built by the Dominicans in 1822, is encircled by a long adobe wall reminiscent of Intramuros; actually, it is just a second outer wall which was later built to accomodate the growing number of interred dead since it used to serve as Manila's municipal cemetery. On the other hand, the inner circular fort stood as the original  wall, cemetery, its thick width filled with niches for the dead. The top of this long wall was made into a pathway for promenades.

A small, domed chapel with baroque features was dedicated to Saint Pancratius and is located in the middle of the park fronting a huge circular water fountain. This chapel was dedicated to St. Pancratius (a young Christian convert who was martyred at a very young age) and is now under the supervision of the Vincentian Fathers. When Paco Park was then functioning as Cementerio de Pacò, the chapel used to serve as the last station of the funeral rites before interring the dead. Ironically, it is now a favorite wedding destination. A curious case, perhaps, of "Love triumphing over Death". =)

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Capilla de Santo Pancracio.

Junífera Clarita has all the reasons to claim that she has been to Paco Park even before she was born!

I used to visit this place back in college. Nothing much has changed as far as I can remember. Back then, I used to come here to meet up with my "comrades" (I was an activist once) and with Adamson University's Tinik Ng Teatro (yes, I did try my luck with theater — and please don't laugh; my feelings get hurt easily). The place, then as now, is conducive to mind-pleasuring activities what with all the landscaped greenery all around. No wonder that, aside from wedding rites, Paco Park has become a favorite rendezvous for artists (photographers, painters, dance groups, etc.), musicians, and intellectuals from all over Manila. Students with school projects often converge here. Debutantes doing some pictorials for their big event are an almost regular fixture. You'll often find bookworms seated on a bench or sprawled on some grass nearby, engrossed on their fantasies. And just recently, scenes from Star Cinema's "Starting Over Again", the highest grossing Filipino movie to date, were filmed here.

Jefe, Krystal, Momay, and Juanito.

After his execution by firing squad at the Bagumbayan (on 30 December 1896), José Rizal was buried right on this spot. Although his body was buried without a marker, the mere fact that he was interred in a Catholic cemetery proves that he indeed died a Catholic.

The so-called GOMBURZA priests (Fr. Mariano Gómez, Fr. José Burgos, and Fr. Jacinto Zamora) who were also executed in Bagumbayan 24 years before Rizal's death were also buried in this cemetery.

Doves are a common fixture here, so please don't scare them away as they add serenity to the place.

Bringing my family for the first time to a place that I used to visit was a great pleasure for me. And it was fun to see my three boys running all over the grass and my two girls enjoying the flowers, unmindful that, once upon a time, Paco Park was the final destination for some Manileños who have ended their terrestrial sojourn.

Click here for more photos of our park-cemetery tour last May 20!