The baroque church of Cagsawa was originally built in 1587 in the small town of Cagsawa (spelled as Cagsaua during the Hispanic era in the Philippines). The church, however, was burned down by Dutch pirates on July 25, 1636.[1] In 1724, the church was rebuilt by Franciscan friars under Father Francisco Blanco.[2][3]

On February 1, 1814, the strongest eruption recorded to date of the Mayon volcano buried the town of Cagsawa and its surrounding areas under several hundred million cubic meters of tephra and lahar,[4][5] killing an estimated 2,000 people. Hundreds of inhabitants of the town of Cagsawa purportedly sought refuge in the church, but were also killed by pyroclastic flows and lahar.[6][7] Only the belfry and some parts of the convent survive today,[8][9] though parts of the crumbling facade were still standing long after the 1814 eruption as attested by photographs. It is believed that the facade of the structure collapsed due to earthquakes that hit the area in the 1950s.[10]

Survivors of the 1814 eruption resettled into the nearby Daraga, which was then a mere barrio of the destroyed town of Cagsawa, and decided to merge the two.[2] However, the Cagsawa church should not be confused with the intact church of Nuestra Señora de la Porteria (locally known as the Daraga Church), built in 1773 and also located in the municipality of Daraga.[11]

Cagsawa was also subjected to the Super Typhoon Durian (designated Typhoon Reming by PAGASA) in 2006. The ruins were unharmed even as the typhoon devastated the surrounding countryside with mudslides and lahar that killed at least 1,266 people.[12][13] The incident is similar to another catastrophe in the same region in 1825, shortly after the 1814 Mayon eruption.[4]