Cagsawa Ruins, Archaeological site in Albay, Philippines.
Cagsawa Ruins is an archaeological site in the province of Albay, Philippines, where a stone bell tower rises before the cone of Mayon Volcano. The surrounding complex includes a paved plaza, low walls of weathered masonry, and open grassy areas extending toward the base of the tower.
Franciscan friars built the church in 1724 in a village near the volcano. The eruption of 1814 buried the settlement under ash and rock, killing more than 1,200 people who had sought shelter inside the church.
The Cagsawa Festival was launched in 2012 by the Albay provincial and Daraga municipal governments, with outdoor and sport events, culinary activities, and presentations of dances and plays. It also hosts Pintura Cagsawa, a body-painting showcase found at no other festival in the province. On February 1, 2014, the province marked the eruption's bicentennial with "Cagsawa Dos Siglos".
Access follows a level path from the entrance to the tower, suitable for wheelchairs. A small museum on the grounds displays photographs of eruption history and geological exhibits without requiring a separate tour.
Only the belfry and parts of the convent survived the 1814 eruption; photographs show the crumbling facade still standing decades later, until earthquakes in the 1950s brought it down. The site also survived Super Typhoon Durian in 2006, which devastated the surrounding countryside with mudslides and lahar.
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