Quezon Memorial Circle
After a national contest was held for the purpose, a winning design by Filipino architect Federico Ilustre was selected. The monument would consist of three vertical pylons (representing the three main geographic divisions of the country: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao), 66 meters (217 ft) tall (Quezon's age when he died), surmounted by three mourning angels holding sampaguita (the national flower) wreaths sculpted by the Italian sculptor Monti. The three pylons would in turn circumscribe a drum-like two-story structure containing a gallery from which visitors could look down at Quezon's tomb, modeled after Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb in the Invalides.
Construction of the Quezon Memorial was begun in the late 1950s but proceded slowly. It was finally completed in 1978, the Centennial of Quezon's birth. His remains were reinterred in the memorial on August 19, 1979. Planned auxiliary structures, including a presidential library, museum, and theater, were never built. On April 28, 2005, the remains of Mrs. Aurora A. Quezon, widow of the president, were solemnly reinterred in the memorial as well.