"Būd" which means hills in Butuanon language, is the commemoration site of the first planting of the cross by Ferdinand Magellan and his crew after celebrating the Mass on the afternoon of Easter Sunday March 31, 1521.A cross and memorial depicting the event have been erected on the site.
On this hill that overlooks the Masao River, people had once observed the Butuan trading center, where traders from China and Southeast Asian kingdom brought their wares to barter gold and other produce.
More DetailsLocated beside the Agusan River, a huge Banyan Tree locally called "Balete" now wraps a church post of this once beautiful stone church built by the Recollect Missionaries. The first Catholic Church in Mindanao was consecrated by a Jesuit Missionary Fr. Valerio de Ledesma on September 8, 1597. Burned to the ground by Moro Pirates in 1753, this old structure was rebuilt but fell into disuse due to transfer of the pueblo (town center) to Baug (Magallanes) in 1865.
More DetailsThe Museum is one of the regional museums of the National Museum of the Philippines. It has three exhibit galleries on Archaeology, Ethnology, and Fine Arts at the moment. Highlighted here are unique and significant artifacts accidentally discovered in the 1970s that strongly prove Butuan’s pre-colonial maritime tradition and its early trade with China and other Southeast Asian countries. Butuan is considered a transit port and trading center in Mindanao during the proto-historic period (9th-15th Centuries C.E.).
More DetailsGuingona Park is located at what has been the public square or “plaza” of Butuan for many years. It is home to three large Acacia trees that are more than a century old. On its grounds is a National Shrine of the Philippine Flag in Mindanao to commemorate the first formal raising of the Philippine flag in Mindanao on January 17, 1899. The Rizal monument was done by the famous Filipino sculpture, Garcia Velarde, in 1935, and this qualifies to be an Important Cultural Property under the Cultural Heritage Act of 2009.
More DetailsThis is the third longest and most navigable river in the Philippines. While many rivers are drying up, this famous “Saugan” (the Butuanon word for river) of Agusan Valley has a very high overflow of water. “Agusan” is derived from the Visayan word “agus” which means “where the water flows”.
More DetailsThis is the site where Butuan Boats 4 and 9 were discovered in 2012 by the National Museum of the Philippines’ archaeologists. One of the major observations of the archaeologists during the excavation is the large boats’ dowels with a diameter of approximately 2 inches and wider planks suggesting a larger-sized boat. Butuan Boat 9 is twice as big as most of the earlier boats excavated including Butuan Boat 4.
Butuan Boat 9 is nicknamed the “Mother Balangay” for its sheer size. The artifacts are conserved in situ or are being preserved within the site which is being developed as an archaeological park.
More DetailsIn 1987, President Corazon Aquino signed Proclamation 86 declaring the balangays as National Cultural Treasures (NCTs), and the sites where they were found, as archaeological sites. The Butuan Boats, popularly known as balangays, are the oldest archaeological evidence of watercraft in the Philippines. The radiocarbon 14 dating (carbon-14 dating) of the wood samples from Butuan Boat 1 shows that their calibrated range dates is 8th-10th century. They were made from a variety of trees, all available in the Philippine archipelago and the neighboring regions. Butuan Boats have wood belonging to Toog (Petersianthus quadrialatus), Shorea sp., Narig grp. (Vatica sp.), Narra, Manggachapui grp., Molave, Alupag grp, and Malugai (Pommetia pinnata) trees.
It was built following the shell-first technique, also known as the plank-built, edged-pegged boat-building method. The Butuan Boats were used for long-distance voyages to carry goods for exchange and goods acquired in return. They played a significant role in the lives of our early settlers in the area, representing the nation’s rich maritime trading heritage.
More DetailsThe fleet of Ferdinand Magellan anchored near an island that lit with a radiant quality of light and that island called Mazua (it is derived from the native word Masao). In Mazaua, the Butuanon brother kings attended the first Mass in the Philippines and the Magellan crew planted a cross on a hill. A memorial was built in Masao near the site where it represents the site that Magellan's fleet have mad an anchorage. Masao is also popular coastal beach where people go swim, eat and relax.
More DetailsThe Butuan Boat Site Museum highlights the remains of the first Butuan Boat, also referred to as Butuan Boat 1. It is located on the actual site where the 1st Butuan Boat was excavated in 1976. The site also displays photographs of archaeological excavations during the 1970s and 1980s, wooden coffins, skeletal remains, and the 14th-15th century burial site.
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