The remains of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal are now interred at the site where he was executed by the Spanish colonial government on December 30, 1896. The area was called Bagumbayan (New Town) then and was located just outside the old walled city of Intramuros. It is now called Rizal Park in honor of the man whose great sin was to ask—he was a writer and didn't even take up arms—that the rights of Filipinos be recognized in their own country. The bronze and granite Rizal Monument was planned and constructed during the American colonial era and designed by the Swiss sculptor Richard Kissling. It is guarded continuously by ceremonial guards called the Kabalyeros de Rizal (Knights of Rizal).