[20] Ancient inhabitants practiced rice cultivation, made fine gold jewelry and possessed silk, suggesting trade with China.

[20] American anthropologist Henry Otley Beyer found jars, stone tools and shells from 100 to 500 BC in Sorsogon and Albay.

[22] Other evidences of pre-Hispanic civilization include the Mataas shell scoop, which dates back to the Late Neolithic Period, found in Cagraray Island.

The village of Sawangan became more populous and progressive and the first parish priest, Fray Francisco de Santa Ana, OFM, built a wooden chapel with St. Gregory the Great as patron.

[28] A bigger and more imposing church replaced the chapel during the tenure of Fray Martin del Espiritu OFM in 1636 and Sawangan continued to thrive despite the Moro raids in the 1700s, a super typhoon in 1742, an earthquake in 1811, and other calamities.

The parish priest of Sawangan, Fray Pedro Licup, urged the residents to transfer to Makalaya (present-day Barangay Taysan) located on the slopes of Mt.

On July 17, 1856, Governor General Ramon Montero signed a decree creating the township of Pueblo Viejo, out of Binanuahan and the adjacent villages of Lamba, Rawis and Bigaa.

In 1873, Legazpi was made a port of entry by a Royal Decree earlier issued in Madrid on May 18, 1872, and later promulgated by Governor-General Juan Alaminos y Vivar on December 3, 1874.

[29] On January 23, 1900, American forces composed of three infantry companies equipped with powerful rifles and cannon landed on the shores of Albay Gulf to conquer Legazpi.

They were met by 800 revolutionary Filipino troops headed by General Jose Ignacio Paua, Col. Antero Reyes, Captain Alvaro Nepomuceno, and Policarpio Pergone who put up a strong defense of the city.

On December 12, 1941, a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Legazpi was occupied by forces of the Imperial Japanese Army, the purpose of which was to obtain control of local airstrips which could be used as forward bases by fighter aircraft for operations in central Luzon.

Throughout the Japanese occupation, resistance by Bicolano and local troops of the Philippine Commonwealth Army continued in the hills and mountains south of Legazpi.

However, the city suffered extensive aerial bombardment from US aircraft and many old buildings were destroyed including the old St. Raphael church and the Academia de Santa Ines campus.

On September 24, 1972, then President Ferdinand Marcos designated Legazpi as the administrative center of Bicol Region through the Integrated Reorganization Plan of 1972, the implementing framework of Presidential Decree No.

[46][47] Aside from Manila where the beatification of St. Lorenzo Ruiz was held, the Pope also visited Baguio, Bacolod, Iloilo, Bataan, Cebu, and Davao.

[61] Because of its geographical location on the eastern coast of the Philippines and the close proximity of Mayon Volcano, Legazpi is vulnerable to typhoons, sea level rise and volcanic eruptions.

[64] Specific disaster preparedness strategies in Albay and Legazpi include preemptive evacuation,[65] 'zero casualty' policy,[66][67] re-planning of the city's land use,[68] mangrove reforestation,[69] and the establishment of the Climate Change Academy as a training center for disaster risk management, evaluation of climate risk hazards and adaptive capabilities, planning, and programming.

[70][71] On March 12, 2018, Mayor Noel E. Rosal announced his administration's proposed plan to construct a permanent 1000-room evacuation center in Barangay Homapon for citizens living within the "eight-kilometer extended danger zone" near the volcano Mayon.

The city has also attracted investments from national retail chains including Metro Gaisano, SM Savemore, Robinsons Supermarket, Puregold, Ministop and 7-Eleven.

Pioneering the business in the city is the Incubation Center of Southern Luzon Technological College Foundation Inc. (SLTCFI), which is an extension of Embarcadero's P1.8-billion IT Park, the very first IT ecozone in the Bicol region inaugurated in July 2009.

[131] In 2015, Taft Property Ventures Development Corp., the real estate arm of Gaisano Group, announced that it is building a condominium in Legazpi.

The province of Albay, whose center of trade and commerce is in the city, recorded a 66 percent growth rate in tourist arrivals for 2013.

Mayon, tourists drive an all-terrain vehicle over rough trails, including a dry riverbed, leading to the volcano's lower slopes where hardened lava rock from previous eruptions are deposited.

The city also serves as a jump-off point to other adventure activities nearby including river rafting and waterfalls exploration in Malinao,[156][157] spelunking in Camalig,[158] island hopping in Bacacay,[159][160] skimboarding in Santo Domingo,[161] and whale shark interaction in Donsol, Sorsogon.

In 2015, the Legazpi Airport was renovated to expand and improve the passenger terminal, add separate arrival and pre-departure areas for domestic and international chartered flights, and provide office space for the Bureau of Immigration, customs and animal quarantine, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

It was later proposed in 2021 by Joey Salceda for his reelection bid that the Legazpi–Daraga alignment of the PNR South Main Line shall be replaced by the Metro Legazpi Tramway project, a light rail and streetcar line that will connect downtown Legazpi to the new Daraga station of the PNR South Long Haul project.

[199] Its modern-day port, which was built by the engineering firm Pedro Siochi and Company during the era of President Quezon, played a great role in the liberation of Manila in 1945.

As of 2015[update], regular passenger trips from the port are between Legazpi and the island municipality of Rapu-Rapu and coastal villages of Bacon District, Sorsogon City.

Opened in 2011 through a grant from the Spanish government's Agencia Espanola Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo (AECID),[202] the sanitary landfill has two cells that will contain the city's non-recyclable waste.

[209] Components of the project include three pumping stations located in barangays San Roque, Baybay and Victory Village, dikes and drainage systems along the Tibu and Macabalo Rivers, and a 2.7 kilometer coastal road in barangays Pigcale, Sabang, Baybay, San Roque and Rawis that will serve as protection from storm surges.