A lavish and elegant palace would not be complete without it's main masterpiece, the grand hall, and Malacanang Palace is no exception. Rizal Hall in Malacanang Palace is probably the most elegant, lavish and flamboyant hall in all of Manila atleast since the Marble Hall of the Ayunatamiento de Manila was reduced to rubbles. It boasts of a mammoth chandelier made in then Czechoslovakia that had to be dismantled piece by piece in order using a manual guide on how to dismantle and bring it all back together and hid into a steel vault for safekeeping after the Palace servants/officials during the height of the second world war learned that the Japanese soldiers was salivating for it. The carvings were of beautiful floral patterns was done by Isabelo Tampingco the most sought after then, mirrors mounted on the walls where made in France and the carpets had to be imported from Spain.
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| Credit: Life Magazine for the picture. |
But little of those where left when former First Lady Imelda "steel butterfy" Marcos ordered a major facelift (quite literally) of the Palace, she had in her mind, moved the height of the roof a few meters, had it's walls from the south side of the Palace move several meters, had all the terraces and balconies joined together to form a masive facade, had the grand hall enlarge and all interiors updated according to her Renaissance-Native-Las Vegas fusion style which resulted to a irreparable damage to the historical significance of the place.
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| The Palace Grand Hall before it's 1970's massive alteration. |
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