Northwards To The Heritage City Of Vigan
A bit of geographical perspective first. The Philippines is made up of no less than 7,641 islands, about 2,000 of which are inhabited. The island of Luzon, where we have started our Philippines tour, is home to both the capital city Manila and just over half of the population of the country as a whole. Luzon is the Philippines’ largest island, roughly half the size of Great Britain. From Manila we have headed to the north of Luzon, to the region of Ilocos Sur, bound for the town of Vigan.
The short domestic flight lands at Laoag, from where it’s just under two hours by road to our instantly appealing destination, through the gates of the town and into the UNESCO World Heritage centre. It’s more than a little confusing though to pass through rice fields and lush green terrain so reminiscent of Vietnam, then turn into a town centre which instantly puts us in mind of Latin America. That Spanish colonial influence again, of course.
Vigan has a wonderfully long and absorbing history, one which is far too much of a story to do full justice to in a blog post, but we’ll give it a go. Let’s start in recent times. In 1999, the heritage centre of Vigan was inscribed on to the UNESCO World Heritage list, but moreover was also named as one of the New7Wonders Cities in 2015. Incidentally, one of the other six is Doha, meaning we’ve visited two “new wonder cities” in the space of a couple of weeks, without knowing it beforehand.
The magnificent buildings of the heritage city came close to disaster just a short time ago in July 2022 when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Luzon. Many of the unique colonial buildings were damaged, as well as the cathedral and the iconic tower at Bantay on the edge of town. Damage to many houses is still visible, ancient brickwork exposed where the rendering fell away, scaffolding supporting precarious structures. Plenty of unique beauty remains though – said by UNESCO to be the best example of the mix of the Chinese and Spanish colonial styles which is peculiar to the Philippines.
When the Spanish pioneer Juan de Salcedo landed here in 1572, he found the region then called Ylocos to be an already prosperous area thanks to the existence of well used trade routes with China and Japan, going on to make the already thriving city of Vigan the Spanish base in Ylocos and renaming it San Fernandina de Vigan.
Ylocos continued to thrive despite being punctuated by regular revolts against colonisation and forced labour. Fast forward now to the 20th century and the period of brutal dictatorship which was the Marcos era. (Note: the current President is also a member of the Marcos family, not to be confused with the era of dictatorship and martial law). The main cobbled street in the heritage city is Calle Crisologo, named after a regional Governor who was initially favoured by Marcos and granted autonomous power and wealth in northern Luzon.
Ilocos Sur though had a strong resistance movement to the dictatorship known as saca-saca, within which Crisologo’s son Vincent was believed to be influential. When this son was arrested by Marcos after the Bantay Incident of 1970, the elder Crisalogo threatened Marcos that unless his son was released, he would expose Marcos’s involvement in embezzlement of profits from the lucrative tobacco trade. Crisalogo was to pay for this disloyalty to Marcos with his life just a few days later – not just murdered, but shot in the back whilst kneeling in prayer in Vigan cathedral.
Nowadays Vigan is a delightful little town to explore, the heritage centre really living up to its title with large quantities of beautiful old buildings in this unique style, centred on the atmospheric Calle Crisologo. Two connected plazas form the heartbeat of the city, the first, Plaza Burgos fairly plain but bordered by the sizeable cathedral, the second, Plaza Salcedo, full of life and penned in by grand metropolitan buildings – town hall, law courts etc.
In the centre of Plaza Salcedo sits a water feature with multiple fountains. On our first night here, temporary spectator stands are being built – something must be happening later, we conclude. Sure enough, with that glorious serendipity which seems happily to be a regular feature of our travels, it’s the first night of a dancing fountain display, where fountains, spotlights, lasers and music combine to create a rather wonderful half hour spectacle.
Out at Bantay where the ancient church of San Augustin has workmen repairing giant cracks in the walls, the adjacent bell tower is out of bounds now and we can only admire it from a distance of 50 yards or so, the 2022 earthquake having caused enough damage to render it teetering on the brink of collapse. “Next time”, says the security guard sadly, “it will probably be destroyed”.
Vigan is known to have existed since before Salcedo’s arrival in the 16th century. These days, with those UNESCO and “7 wonders” accolades to its name, it is undoubtedly something of a tourist destination, as evidenced by the souvenir shops in Calle Crisologo, but its nod to tourism remains nicely understated and the whole of the town is a cool place to wander.
And wander we do – through two of its interesting museums which do their best to sidestep the dictatorship era, around the heritage city, along the food and handicraft stalls across the river, and, as if drawn by a magnet, back each time to the two plazas and Calle Crisologo. Vigan proudly boasts some regional food specialities, including longganitza, but we’re going to have to cover that in a future post – Filipino food has some seriously different attributes and has definitely got us interested.
Vigan is really lovely, our time here has been special, but it’s time to move on again, and we need to catch the bus to our next destination.
“Bus is broken”, says the man in the office, “next bus in three hours”.
Time for another Filipino coffee then.
26 Comments
Terrie
I want a sample from the pork fat shop! I imagine many foods are cooked in pork fat. Lovely town and such a relief from a huge city! How was the lodging?
Phil & Michaela
You can have pork fat in a million different ways! Filipino food is definitely different, more on that to come later. Lodging is fine so far….clean and satisfactory but not what you would call high spec…
restlessjo
Hope you make it! What a contrast to Manila. With more than half the population on Luzon, I’m wondering at the overall numbers. Much prefer the garlic shop to the pork fat one. Variety, they say…. have fun!
Phil & Michaela
There’s around £116 million people in the country, just over half on Luzon. Fortunately there seems to be enough pork fat for everyone 😂😂
grandmisadventures
Vigan looks like a charming city, perfect for strolling and enjoying. I love the different shops and how they specialize in one product. I don’t know how much pork fat I would buy, but I would definitely stock up on sugarcane and garlic 🙂
Phil & Michaela
You really can’t miss the sugar cane, it’s in absolutely everything!
Miriam
What a delightful looking place Vigan is, full of fascinating architecture and history. Look forward to your foodie post!
Phil & Michaela
It was indeed a lovely little place Miriam, very attractive and peaceful too.
Alison
Such a lovely town, much nicer than Manilla it seems. Love those water fountains. Great history lesson too. Have fun on your next bus trip and hope it’s not too long a ride
Phil & Michaela
Enjoyed Vigan, Ali…and the fountain display was a little unexpected treat
Andrew Petcher
A splendid golden statue, who is it?
Phil & Michaela
He was the rather wonderfully named Elpidio Quirino, President of the independent Philippines just after WW2, born in Vigan.
Toonsarah
This is one of the places I’m most looking forward to seeing so I’m really pleased to read your positive reaction to it and to see the shots of those buildings which I’m definitely going to enjoying photographing!
Phil & Michaela
We have every confidence you will like Vigan, Sarah. Not wanting to oversell it….so I’ll shut up now 😂
Monkey's Tale
Vigan reminds me a little of Malacca, if you swap the Portuguese and Spanish. It looks like the kind of place we’d like to spend a few days. Not for the pork fat though. Maggie
Phil & Michaela
The cuisine here has some definite peculiarities!
ehacarr
Have scrolled up-and-down more than a few times – feel so ignorant having known so little! Thank you for the cross-section of life your photos show. Naturally the food shop ones make one look more than once – the garlic one looks so hitherish and pork-fat-shop as a special entity hard to believe . . .
Phil & Michaela
Pork fat is an essential foodstuff here!
ehacarr
Sunday morning in Oz – thought I would make you smile from sheer coincidence! Because of my roto cuff injury am at the moment living in a serviced studio in my Village . . . a number of Filipinos are earning their bread here whilst studying at unis . . . this morning a young guy slowly scrolled thru’ your photos almost gasping and giving me a half-hour ‘lecture’ on each one . . . his family home is but a short ride away from the town . . . . the unlikelihood in life . . .
Phil & Michaela
Wow that’s a freak of a coincidence, but one which made us smile big time. Uncanny how things like this happen, he looks over your shoulder and sees his home town thousands of miles away. I hope we gave him a nice reminder of home.
WanderingCanadians
I had no idea that the Philippines had that many islands! Vigan looks much quieter and more appealing than Manila. It looks like the Bantay tower is going to topple over any minute!
Phil & Michaela
I know, and it gives it great character too, the fact that it’s teetering.
Annie Berger
Wow, lucky you exploring historic Vigan! You’ve pictured it just as I’d imagined it would be. Never heard of a garlic shop before – did you pop in or give it a pass?!
Phil & Michaela
We didn’t need any, there’s garlic in everything!! Vigan was great, Annie, and I would say definitely your kind of place too.
Lookoom
Vigan is indeed a well-established tourist destination, but it’s good to get your bearings here before moving on to more remote areas.
Phil & Michaela
A very pleasant and interesting town, too.