The cathedral that survived volcanic eruption in Mexico’s San Juan Parangaricutiro

Digital Originals

We take you to the Mexican town of San Juan Parangaricutiro, which was almost entirely submerged in lava when the Western Hemisphere’s youngest volcano erupted in 1943.

The town was evacuated and left abandoned for nearly half a century.

Today, the site is becoming a popular tourist attraction, as visitors take in the other-worldly landscape of the church and buildings half-buried in the lava flow. Visitors can walk on top of the lava and all the way up to the buried site.