"[6] Luis Née, a botanist, reached Bicol in January 1792, accompanying the expedition of Capt.

He noted that "trees grew in exuberance making the foothills impenetrable in many parts.

In 1895, the Colegio de San Buenaventura was also built, making Guinobatan the centre for higher education in Albay.

During the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War (1898-1911), most of the schoolhouses built by the Spaniards were destroyed by constant artillery fire, most of which came from the Americans.

As part of the "pacification" campaign of the Americans, engineers and architects were sent to the Philippines to oversee the construction of public works.

Edward K. Bourne and famed urban planner Daniel Burnham, among other American architects and engineers, were instructed to go to Manila.

The same year, Assemblyman Isauro Gabaldon of Nueva Ecija authored an act which appropriated ₱1 million between 1907 and 1915 for "construction of schoolhouses of strong materials in barrios with guaranteed daily attendance of not less than sixty pupils…" Passing into law as Act No.

Potenciano Gregorio's Bikol language musical composition "Sarung Banggi" premiered at the town fiesta in Guinobatan in August 1910.

The territory of Guinobatan is bordered by a number of municipalities: Camalig on the east, Jovellar on the south, Pio Duran on the south-west, Ligao on the north-west.

On the north-east, the town shares with Malilipot, Santo Domingo, Daraga, Tabaco and Legazpi, a common point in the crater of Mayon Volcano.