Fronting Puerta de Isabel II is a bronze STATUE OF ISABEL II
which was funded by donations from the city between 1854 and 1855. A
Spanish sculptor, Ponciano Ponzano, was commissioned to do the work. It
was erected amidst festive ceremonies on 14 July 1860 near the Teatro
Alfonso XII in Arroceros, along what is now Plaza Lawton or Liwasang Bonifacio.
Political upheavals in Spain caused the downfall of the Queen and the
rise of the liberal government in 1868. Carlos Ma. de la Torre, a
liberal official, was appointed governor-general of the Philippines. He
had his eyes set on removing the remnants of the previous regime.
The task of destroying the monument was given to Bartolome Barretto, a
Manila government official. Sympathizers of the Spanish crown, however,
refused to carry out the task. Chinese workers were then hired to
remove the statue. Barretto hid it in his house before the Ayuntamiento reclaimed it. The Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais
(Economic Association of Friends of the Country) requested that the
statue be made part of their museum collection, but De la Torre
consigned it to a storeroom in the Casas Consistoriales. There it remained for several years.
The statue was erected in front of the Malate Church in 1896, surviving
natural and man-made disasters until 1970 when it was blown down by
Typhoon Yoling. It was transferred to its present site during the visit
of Prince (now King) Carlos of Spain in 1975.
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