Cagayancillo is a small town located in the east of the Palawan Island on an island with the same name, Cagayancillo. The distance to the Puerto Princesa provincial capital city is 330 kilometres. The island city is located almost in the middle of the Sulu Sea. According to the 2007 census, it had a population of about 6,500 people.
There are no mountain ranges or extensive forests on the island. Low hills occupy a very small part of Cagayancillo in the north-east, while the rest of the island is made up of plains.
Cagayancillo is famous primarily for the fact that it is the closest settlement to the Tubbataha Marine National Park, on the territory of which the coral reef of the same name is located, attracting thousands of diving tourists.
Another attraction of Cagayancillo is the eponymous fort, one of the few military fortifications built during the Spanish colonisation and has survived to this day. The construction of the fort began in the late 16th century by Father Nicolás Melo and Father Alonso Coloza and lasted more than a hundred years. It was not until the early 18th century that the fort was completed under the direction of Father Hipolito Casiano. The fort was shaped like a diamond and covered an area of 162 square metres. It was built on the coast on a high promontory and its walls were made of a mixture of sea stones and limestone. Similar to some other Spanish forts. forts, inside Fort Cagayancillo there is a church surrounded by massive walls 12 metres high and 3 metres thick. These walls protected the inhabitants from pirate raids.
There are only three such fortifications on the island of Palawan - apart from Cagayancillo, they are Fort Isabel in Taytay town and Fort Cuyo in the town of the same name.
