Plaza Miranda

Plaza Miranda is a public square bounded by Quezon Boulevard, Hidalgo Street and Evangelista Street in Quiapo, Manila. It is the plaza which fronts the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Jesus Nazareno (Quiapo Church), one of the main churches of the City of Manila and is considered the center of Quiapo as a whole. Inaugurated in its current form by Mayor Arsenio Lacson in 1961, it is named after José Sandino y Miranda, who served as the Philippines' Secretary of the Treasury between 1833 and 1854. Regarded as the center of Philippine political discourse before the imposition of martial law in 1972, the plaza was the site of the 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing, where two grenades were launched at a political rally of the Liberal Party, killing nine people. It later became the venue of the Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL) rally led by Sen. Jose W. Diokno on September 21, 1972, where 50,000 people gathered together to protest the impending martial law declaration of the Marcos dictatorship. Martial law was quickly made official hours after the event. It underwent a ₱49 million renovation in 2000 after decades of neglect as a result of Manila's urban decay in the 1970s and 1980s, giving it a more modern design despite protests from various historical groups and cultural experts, with a monument erected to commemorate bombing victims and additional architect

Square data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).