Angeles museum, half-buried churches keep Pinatubo fury alive

TARLAC CITY— From half-buried churches that still bear the weight of lahar to museums preserving the memory of destruction, the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption remains a story of landscape devastation and human resilience.

The Sunken Shrine in Cabetican, Bacolor, Pampanga, and the San Guillermo Parish Church stand as enduring witnesses to the eruption’s fury.

Both were engulfed by lahar flows, with the Sunken Shrine buried under meters of volcanic debris and San Guillermo left half-submerged after successive lahar surges.

Article continues after this advertisement

READ: Tourism revives Pinatubo landscape

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

Built as early as 1576 by Augustinian friars, San Guillermo Church—originally a Baroque structure—became a catch basin of lahar, forcing around 67,000 residents to evacuate Bacolor. Today, only its upper structure remains visible, with windows now serving as entrances and its altar partially excavated from volcanic mud.

Nearby, the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, known as the Sunken Shrine, was also swallowed by ash and lahar. Built in Brutalist style and once standing 18 meters high, it was submerged for years before being partially excavated and reopened as a pilgrimage site that now draws visitors into its lowered chambers and preserved sacred spaces.

These churches now stand as silent monuments to one of the most devastating volcanic disasters in Philippine history, which displaced an estimated 1.2 million people across Pampanga, Zambales, and Tarlac and buried vast agricultural lands under ash and mud.

Rice fields turned gray under lahar flows, while homes, schools, and infrastructure were destroyed. For nearly a decade after the eruption, monsoon rains repeatedly triggered destructive mudflows that reshaped rivers, buried roads, and delayed recovery across Central Luzon.

Article continues after this advertisement

The crisis deepened further when Typhoon Diding (international name: Yunya) struck the region, mixing heavy rains with volcanic debris and sulfuric ash, worsening conditions for already displaced communities.

Warning signals

Article continues after this advertisement

In some areas, church bells served as warning signals for incoming lahar flows, reflecting how closely faith and survival were intertwined during the disaster.

Thirty-five years later, what was once a landscape of devastation has slowly transformed into one of recovery, memory, and education.

READ: 35 years after Pinatubo blast, ‘bayanihan’ still inspires

In Angeles City, the Pinatubo Museum at the Center for Kapampangan Studies, Holy Angel University, preserves the history of the 1991 eruption through artifacts, murals, and installations.

Among them is “Lumod,” a wall-sized artwork by Arnel Garcia depicting families buried in lahar, alongside exhibits of ashfall, mudflow materials, and historical timelines of the eruption.

In an interview, museum guide and student assistant Niño Joseph Aloba, 20, said the exhibit helps younger generations understand the scale of the disaster.

He said interns also helped develop a mobile augmented reality application that allows visitors to scan images and view audiovisual presentations about the eruption.

“This makes the experience more interactive and helps visitors better understand what happened during the eruption,” Aloba said.

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

The museum also displays ancient wood and geological artifacts recovered from river systems, further highlighting the region’s long environmental history./coa