TRAVEL | The haunting but nearly wasted beauty of the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery
Remnants of a once glorious past. Forgive me for the rather depressing title but that's exactly how I would sum up my impression of the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery in Nagcarlan, Laguna. It was my first time to visit. (I know, shame on me considering it's not really that much of a drive from Metro Manila.) But at least I finally made that trip. We were comfortably holed up at Sitio de Amor in San Pablo at the time but managed to force our butts out of bed and drove to Nagcarlan and later, Liliw. Nagcarlan is a 45-minute or so leisurely drive from San Pablo and you'll reach the cemetery before hitting the town proper. It's on the left side of the road right across a Shell gas station. Declared a National Historical Landmark in the 1970s, the cemetery dates back to Spanish colonial times and is regarded as the only underground cemetery in the country. Following the declaration, no more burials were allowed in the cemetery; the last one was in the early 80s. ...