Your tour will not be complete if you don’t visit the Cagsawa Ruins. Here, you can see the Mayon Volcano up close and the historic Cagsawa Ruins, where a Church once stood but was destroyed by a major eruption of the Mayon Volcano.
The Cagsawa Church was made during the 18th century by Franciscan friars. It’s style is a baroque one. However, nowadays, you cannot see its former grandeur..
Cagsawa Church (Photo from Jenny Exconde's Web)
It is called Cagsawa Church because it is located in a baranggay called Cagsawa in Daraga, Albay.
In February 1, 1814, the Mayon Volcano erupted. 1200 people went to this Church hoping that they will be saved from Mayon’s fury. Unfortunately, all of these 1200 people died. It’s just like what happened in Pompeii where they seek refuge yet they still died. However, the case here is that they were not poisoned by gas or hot ashes but they were burnt by lava that flowed throughout the small town of Daraga.
People tried to climb the bell tower but they all died in vain. And not only that; 15000 people died during that eruption– which was said to be one of the most scariest and strongest eruption made by Mayon throughout history.
The Bell Tower where the victims were climbing in vain 
also.. the barangay Cagsawa was buried with sand and never recovered
only few people survived Mayon’s wrath.
AND, the only surviving structure of this Church is its bell tower..
The Bell Tower
Now this Church’s remains became one of the landmarks in Albay; and you can see souvenirs having this bell tower beside the Majestic Mayon Volcano:
Mayon covered with clouds and Cagsawa Bell Tower
To see clearly what it looks like when there are no clouds, I grabbed a picture from Wikipedia, and here is the beautiful photo of Mayon Volcano and the Bell Tower
From Wikipedia
This Mayon Volcano might be very beautiful but when she gets angry—she is really scary!
Beautiful Mayon Volcano 
GREAT post! Great information and photos!!
Courtney Mara
http://CourtneyMara.com
Thank you Courtney!
Reblogged this on FilipinoFestival.com.
Wow, thank you for reblogging my post. It’s really an honor to be reblogged
Mayon is beautiful! My mother is Bicolana (from Naga City), and I remember going to see Mayon and the Cagsawa Ruins when I went to visit my Grandmother and cousins some years ago. I think I took a lot of the same photos that you did
Thanks for posting the legend, in your previous post, as well. It’s always fun to read these origin stories.
Hi! That’s good that you already visited Cagsawa. It’s really beautiful Isn’t it?? Thank you for visiting my site!
By the way, Naga is also a wonderful city and actually much better than Legazpi in terms of development; and it’s only 30minutes away from the famous Camsur Water Complex where a lot of people practice wakeboarding.
Thanks for dropping-by! Hope you can visit Bicol again… by the way, tell your mom about Caramoan, she might know about it and can share to you how beautiful that place is
Great post. The Philipines is full of so many wonderfully evocative and mysterious places, it was moving to read about this one!
Indeed, Philippines has its own extraordinary unexplored places and beautiful nature trails. The Philippines doesn’t have those strong and tall skyline like Singapore or Seoul have, however, it has its natural beauty that we Filipinos are proud of. The beauty of the Philippines is its natural and yet to be discovered coves, islands and other beautiful natural wonders.
The Story behind Cagsawa is really tragic, every time I think of, there’s a pain that penetrates my heart.
Thank you very much for visiting
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