Luna Ruins

Luna, La Union

Luna Ruins and Old Spanish Watch Tower is locally named as Baluarte located in Brgy. Victoria, Luna, La Union. The ruin due to stone quarrying at the beach and efforts by the locals have been put in place by adding cement block support to avoid further destruction of the watchtower.

Luna Ruins and Old Spanish Watch Tower or Baluarte News

  • La Unions 400-year-old Baluarte Whole Again

    The 400-year-old watchtower, known to residents and tourists in the coastal town of Luna in La Union province as “Baluarte” (fortress), is whole again.

    Half of the 5.6-meter high Spanish-era structure collapsed due to strong waves generated by Typhoon “Lando” (international name: Koppu) in October 2015.

    The typhoon left the other half standing but waves and strong winds washed fragments of the debris toward the sea.

    Government historians and conservation experts oversaw repairs on the tower, working hard to approximate the structure’s architectural design and materials.

    T ...

  • Baluarte The Leaning Tower Of Luna La Union

    Know why we should preserve this national treasure

    Luna, a municipality in the province of La Union, is known as the Pebble Capital of the North. Its coast facing the West Philippine Sea seems to be a bottomless repository of pebbles of various sizes and colors that are washed in from the ocean. Along this strip stands a 5.6-meter tall structure that has survived pirate attacks, a war among countries, and even a devastating typhoon.

    Locally called as "Baluarte," the watchtower in Barangay Victoria was built during the Spanish period as a solution to the frequent ransacking of Japanese, C ...

  • Lunas Pebble Beach

    When we went to the Municipality of Luna, La Union, we noticed that most of the townsfolk there were busy sorting pebbles inside their garages and placing the carefully handpicked ones to a plastic bag with Japanese characters on it. We asked some local and she said the shiny stones came from the Pebble Beach. The bags with stones collected and sorted will then be traded for export.

    When we got to the pebble beach, we saw a shoreline full of pebbles, the Baluarte Watch Tower, and a lot of locals doing pebble picking. According to the Luna's folklore, the Lady of Namacpacan (Namacpacan was t ...

  • Lustrous Luna La Union

    One of the things that make traveling exciting is boredom. Yes, you heard it right! Why? Because boredom will usually force you to find something to do, explore, and experience. I have scheduled that weekend to roam around the province of La Union. Since I enjoyed Urbiztondo beach of San Juan for the whole day of Saturday, I wanted to spend the next day on another municipality.

    San Gabriel is a nearby town from San Juan and is known for numerous waterfalls, Tangadan Falls as the most famous one. But I had problem with the way of going to the falls due to its inaccessibility. I just decided ...

  • La Union Chasing Waterfalls

    With nothing to do one weekend last August, I saw a post in CS FB page from Plan B Adventure Madness about their Baguio-La Union Road Trip and decided to join. It was only the day before when we asked for details and confirmed just few hours before the trip. Lucky enough we were able to secure 2 slots.

    After the success of our Baguio Day Trip, we went straight to a small town somewhere in La Union which took us around 3 hours where we spent the night sleeping in our tents. Another opportunity for a social gathering before calling it a day.

    The next morning, almost everyone managed to wak ...

  • La Union More Than Surfing

    Only six hours away from Manila is the laid-back province of La Union, which has literally made waves in the tourism industry as a surfing destination. The GMA News TV travel program "Weekend Getaway" visited this surfing capital and discovered other cool things that La Union has to offer.

    San Juan Surf Resort

    Ever since surfing became big in the Philippines, La Union has claimed the title of "Surfing capital of the North." The San Juan Surf Resort is one of the more popular surfing destinations in La Union, and offers excellent surfing lessons for beginners, headed by surfing expert an ...