This Mexican Baroque-style church is overlooking Plaza Rajah Sulayman and, ultimately, Manila Bay.

Malate used to be known as Maalat due to the saline waters of the Bay fronting it; and as Laguio or Lagunoi, after the street which separated it from Ermita.

In the Chapter held on May 17, 1590, three resident priests of the monastery of San Agustín (Manila) were charged with the care of the natives of Malate; they were Frs.

The report of the Father Provincial of 1591 reveals that the house of Malate together with Lagunoi had 1,200 persons, convent and church.

In 1639, the convent of Malate contributed to the patriotic campaign of Governor-General Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, former governor of Panamá, who brought Peruvian soldiers as well as Panamanians and Genoese to fight against Muslim pirates, with a donation of two bells of seven arrobas and seven libras (approx.

The priest of Malate also ministered to neighbouring Ermita from 1591 to 1610, since the two barrios had been united by Governor-General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas with the approval of Bishop Domingo de Salazar, O.P.

The church and convent dedicated to the Nativity of Our Lady (Conception) were damaged heavily by the 1645 Luzon earthquake.

In 1667, both structures were demolished on orders of Governor-General Sabiniano Manrique de Lara due to the threat posed by the pirate Koxinga.

In 1669, the father provincial placed the convent of Malate under his immediate care and authorized the prior to use the “repository of alms for the dead” for the construction of the buildings.

One of the remaining bells displayed at the entrance of the new convent has this inscription: "Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.

If Santa Ana was the summer resort by the Pasig River from the 17th to the 19th centuries, Malate was its counterpart by Manila Bay.

The juxtaposition of Mexican Baroque and Muslim design has resulted in an interesting colonial style, “mudejarisimo Filipino”, wrote Alice Coseteng in her book, Spanish Churches in the Philippines.

[3][5] The central, rectangular body of the three-storey façade is flanked by two projecting cylindrical buttresses, shaped into half-embedded hexagonal forms, converted from bell towers with the third tier as belfries.

[3] The illusion of solidity and height are from the twisted columns, a popular feature in Mexican Baroque and used extensively in retablos but seldom on façades.

Laid out across the tiers like cornices are diamond and rectangular designs, as well as the shallow, ornamental relief work suggestive of Islamic art.

Few openings suggest massiveness, while the bell towers give an impression of solidity and strength in “squeezing” the middle part of the façade.

This image is popular with mothers who have sick children; they manifest their devotion by lighting special candles and pouring private petitions to the Virgin.