It's named in honor of the Spanish patron Saint James, Slayer of Moors (Santiago Matamoros), whose wooden relief decorates the main gate to the Fort. Fort Santiago served as the military headquarters of the Spanish, British, American, and Japanese regimes. During World War II, it was a dreaded place where hundreds of men and women were jailed, tortured and executed by the Japanese military police.
It was destroyed by American forces during 1945 Battle of Manila, and was restored as a public park after the Congress of the Philippines declared it a "Shrine of Freedom" in 1950.
The Rizal Shrine is a museum in honor of the national hero. It stands on the site of a brick barracks building where Rizal was imprisoned from November 3 to December 29, 1896.
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