Nasunugan Watchtower

NASUNUGAN TOWER

The Biliran Watchtower at San Roque, also known as the Nasunugan Watchtower is thought to date back to when the Spanish ruled the Philippines and are possibly connected to the nearby San Roque Chapel ruins. From the hill you can see views across to Leyte Province and you understand how this watchtower was a very important defensive position for Biliran Island. 

How do I get there?

As you come across the Biliran Bridge and enter Biliran Island the old Nasunugan Watchtower is on the small hill to the left. As you enter the Island look for a set of steps on the left hand side of the road going up the hill that take you straight up to the Biliran Watchtower.

Below the quadrangle is a triangular terrace surrounded by crumbling walls of coral stone blocks. The terrace ground is overgrown with banana clumps.

The original structures here were probably built around the time of the Biliran Religious Revolt from 1765 to 1774. Their architecture is original; they have not been patterned after other Spanish churches and watch towers found all over Leyte and Samar.

The Biliran revolt was led by Padre Gaspar Ignacio de Guevara, a native priest from Samar who was the first parish priest of the Biliran pueblo. He broke away from the Catholic Church, formed his own sect, and experimented with a commune society for the natives in the forest of Biliran, some eight kilometers from its protective fortress.

Padre Gaspar was captured by Moro pirates and drowned around 1774. The pirates or his followers later burned his forest commune and the structures in the existing ruins.