In the time before the Spaniards came, the town of Laoang was a place called Makarato on an island called Lawang, which later became Laoang. People say that the name comes from the Waray word for “light,” “lawag.”

Father Ignacio Alzina, SJ, a Jesuit missionary, wrote about Laoang in 1668: “On the other side of Rawis, on the Lawang Island, which is a sandbar, there is a solid ridge of rock. It was made by nature, and its steepness makes it look like the front of a wall. It was a natural fort because of how high and big the rocks were. It was also protected by what looked like a moat that went around three sides. A palisade of strong logs blocked the fourth side. Also, nature made something like a small cove with a beach on one side of this rock.” Laoang became a trading center for the Catubig Valley because it is in a good spot at the mouth of the Catubig River. The Catubig River is the main source of water for the people of Northern Samareos.

In 1627, the Jesuits set up Laoang as a mission chapel, or visita, of Palapag. It stayed that way until the 18th century, when it became its own mission. In 1680, the families of the three native principales moved there from nearby Palapag, making it a settlement. By 1750, people in Laoang wanted a church to be built because they had to go to Palapag, which was a long way away, to do their Sunday duties.

In 1767 or 1768, the church and convent were built out of rubble. They were both named after the town’s patron saint, San Miguel Arcangel. The church was built on a point that looked out over Laoang Bay. This area is now called Barangay Guilaoangi, and it became the center of the town. Delgado says that a fort was built in this area below the convent and church in the late 1700s, but it is not clear if the buildings were made of wood or stone or if the church is the same one that is there now.

When the Jesuits were kicked off the Philippine Islands in 1768, the Franciscans took over and set up a parish with the same name and the same saint as its patron. Redondo looked at the oldest parish records in 1886 and concluded that the parish was probably started in 1733.

In 1814, a fort and a wall were built near the church as part of a defense plan ordered by the governor-general to stop Moro pirates from stealing from the coastal towns of Samar at the time.

Father Jose Mata, who was the parish priest of both Laoang and Palapag, was said to have been the first person to start building the muralla, or cobblestone wall, at his own cost. The natives used the Almuraya Fort, which was on top of the cliff west of the Church, as a watchtower to warn the authorities about the Moro pirates. Both the fort, which is now in ruins, and the muralla kept the Moro from getting to the back and sides of the church.

At the end of Spain’s rule, the town of Laoang grew quickly and became a busy port, especially for trading hemp or abaca. Some of the most important business houses in Manila already did business in Samar, and Laoang was one of the most important hemp centers on the island. There were four large Chinese businesses in the town, as well as Oria Hermanos, which competed with other foreign businesses on the island.

During Father Manuel Lozano, OFM’s time in office, the church and convent were fixed up after a big earthquake badly damaged them. This took place from 1848 to 1852. Father Sebastian Almonacid, OFM, who took over after him, fixed up the damaged buildings and had the roofs of both buildings fixed up in a conservative way to keep the original fabric. Around 1855, when Father Angel Pulido, OFM was in charge, the church got a lot of work done and new parts added. The nave got a baptistry, both the church and the baptistry were tiled with glazed blue tiles called azulejos, the altars were gilded again, and the bell tower was built. By the early 1900s, this bell tower was in bad shape. It was fixed in 1926.

In 1982, on Christmas Day, a strong typhoon hit the town and ripped the church’s roof off. This destroyed the baroque altar, which was as old as the church itself. Father Nicodemus Ricalde, who was in charge of the reconstruction committee, had to sell the last pieces of the altar to pay for fixing up the church’s roof.

Over time, the changes to the building became clear. The entrances to the transept were changed, and a separate building next to the epistle side of the nave was torn down to make room for a bigger convent. The baptistry was torn down, and new doors were put on the walls of the old church. The National Museum of the Philippines would help the parish add ambulatory annexes to keep up with the fast growth of parishioners. The church has been through fires and earthquakes, and Monsignor Balerite has been working to fix it up ever since.

The walls of the church are made of cobblestones that are two meters thick. The two side altars and the baroque retablo make the shape of a cross. The main facade has statues of San Pedro and San Pablo, and at the top is a statue of San Miguel Arcangel, who is the patron saint of Laoang. It has a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary on top of it.

If the Jesuits built the church, the front looks like a variation of a San Ignacio-style front. “The retablo-like structure that connects a central niche with a picture of St. Michael to the lower members softens the lines between the horizontal members. The otherwise plain pediment is decorated with scrollwork.”

The Pergola is a cobblestone arch that was built in 1894 as part of the old Casa Tribunal. It is next to the church and between the two modern buildings of the city hall and the Laoang police station (Justice Hall). The arch is next to two cannons that were made in Spain. It is an arch made of cobblestones that looks like Spanish architecture. It was a way to get to the now-defunct Casa Tribunal, which was replaced by the current municipal hall, which was built in 1894 by the Gobernadorcillo at the time, Don Juan T. Mulleda.

In 2009, the National Historical Institute gave the Church of Laoang a historical marker. It was considered a local historical landmark because the outside architecture was kept, even though the original interior was changed. The San Miguel Arcangel Parish, the Almuraya Fortress Ruins, the Muralla (wall), the Grand Canyon, and the Pergola were all places that the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ Subcommission on Cultural Heritage visited in Laoang in 2013. They were all places that needed to be preserved for their cultural heritage.