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The GMA Network's "Maria Clara at Ibarra" began airing on television and online premiere on October 3, 2022. The show is an adaptation of Dr. Jose Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere," a historical period drama which became a blast and fantastic nowadays, especially for Filipino teens and students. It just caught my attention and only watched its first episode. The teledrama continues to be about the Noli Me Tangere while incorporating new components, but this time as seen and experienced by a person who has been thrust into the world of Rizal's Noli. The protagonist and primary modern heroine is Klay Infantes (Barbie Forteza).
The subject of this first installment of the story is the historic locations in Manila that appeared in "Maria Clara at Ibarra" or were depicted in the drama. These old places were the walking steps of Rizal from his student days in Manila during the Spanish times. If you were to ask me now, I would say that many old buildings in Manila have been destroyed and others were nothing at all. From my readings, before World War II Manila was a lovely city; after the war, the nation's capital was destroyed, a nightmare. You will be severely disappointed if you attempt to follow the Noli Me Tangere's locations today because the most of the places have since disappeared.
The first part is the Beaterio de Santa Catalina in Intramuros, where Klay Infantes awakens inside Maria Clara's room from the Noli Me Tangere. The Beaterio was situated in the Dominican area of Intramuros, which was home to a number of institutions run by the Dominican order, in the northeastern part of the city. This implies that Klay would have seen structures like the Neo-Gothic Santo Domingo Church, the Old Santa Rosa Building, Letran College, and the Old UST Building when she exits the Beaterio, all of which are no longer there in her universe (since she is a student of PLM in Intramuros).
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It can be gleaned some points of the place in the show from the novel, Chapter VI - Capitan Tiago:
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"At this period of change, so full of mystery and romance, Maria was placed, by the advice of the curate of Binondo, in the nunnery of St. Catherine in order to receive strict religious training from the Sisters."
"There in that convent, which communicates with the world through double bars, even under the watchful eyes of the nuns, she spent seven years."
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Venerable Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo founded the Beaterio de Santa Catalina in 1633, but it wasn't until 1696 that it received official recognition. It was a religious community for Spanish religious women and nuns during Spanish times. Before being destroyed by Japanese bombers in 1941, the beaterio and school, or Colegio, stood in Intramuros along Calle Beaterio. In Sampaloc, Manila, on Calle Legarda, the school was reopened. The Colegio de San Juan de Letran later purchased the site.
The Beaterio site today:
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