The Cathedral of St. Gregory the Great, also called the Albay Cathedral, is the Episcopal Seat of the Diocese of Legazpi. The cathedral started as a wooden chapel built by early Spanish missionaries who moved into the town in the 1580s. It was damaged by American bombers and reconstruction went beyond 1951. The church was elevated to become a cathedral when the Episcopal See of the Diocese of Legaspi was established.

Legazpi City began as a barangay called Sawangan (now Legazpi Port) whose inhabitants were mostly fishermen and farmers. In 1587, Franciscan friars of the Doctrina of Cagsawa began to convert the settlement to Christianity and in 1616 they transformed it into a separate town and parish called Albay.