The Augustinian church of Bauan was founded as a visita (small chapel without a resident priest) in 1590 on the slopes of Mount Macolod, along Taal Lake's southern shore.

The resident priest of Taal, Father Diego de Avila would visit periodically and attend to the spiritual needs of the settlement.

[6][7] Six years after the establishment of the ecclesiastical mission of Bauan, a giant cross made of anubing was found in a Diñgin (a place of worship) near the town of Alitagtag.

In 1790, Castro y Amoedo found a Tagalog document in the Bauan Cathedral Archives, signed by 25 Indio elders, stating the cross was made around 1595, as protection from ghosts surrounding the Tolo fountain.

A golden sun, with a human face, and radiating rays was added, while the devout would cut away pieces of the cross to make talisman replicas.

The elders also thought the cross protected the town from pestilence, locusts, drought, volcanic eruptions, and Moro pirates.

[7] Today, the traditional folk dance of Bauan, subli, is a religious homage to the Cross of Alitagtag.

The dance is performed at a sambahan (place of worship), two of which are natural grottos along the shore of Taal Lake, and one of which is called Diñgin.

[7] Bauan became an independent parish on May 12, 1596, but was re-annexed to Taal, its matriz (mother town), because of too few tributos (taxpayers).

Due to Taal Volcano eruptions, the town moved to Durungao (lookout point), led by Father Jose Rodriguez, in 1662.

The current church was built in 1762 by Father Jose Victoria and Don Juan Bandino.

Father Bravo was also an imminent botanist who put up a museum of natural history and collected rare books that were lost when the church was razed by fire during the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1898.

Bauan is one of the lowland towns of central Batangas that hosts some mountains and hills, with the tallest; Mount Durungao.

It has a two million twenty-foot equivalent units capacity, with 900 meters of quay and eight ship-to-shore gantry cranes, handling ro-ro, project and containerized cargo.