Under 216 nm UV-excitation, cascade emission of Pr3+ occurs from1S0 state in LaBaB9O16:Pr3+ that converts a single UV photon of high energy into two visible photons. The observation of the cascade emission in this oxide matrix is largely due to the weak crystal field on the lanthanum sites. The analysis of the vibrational coupling indicates that the radiative transition from the 3P0 state is related to the low phonon frequency of the BO4 borate groups bonded to the lanthanum atoms (hwmax~850 cm-1). On the other hand, the cascade emission does not take place in a closely related material, YBaB9O16:Pr3+, which can be interpreted by the fact that the 4f5d levels are located below the 1S0 level in this material.