Vigan
UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscribed 1999; The Best Preserved Spanish Colonial Town In Asia, And It Survived Because The Bombers Went Elsewhere · Vigan, Ilocos Sur
VIGAN IS THE BEST-PRESERVED SPANISH COLONIAL TOWN IN ASIA AND THE REASON IS UNCOMFORTABLE: IT SURVIVED BECAUSE THE WAR WENT ELSEWHERE. Manila was destroyed almost completely in 1945 and Vigan was not bombed, so what stands on CALLE CRISOLOGO is the real thing - cobblestones and two storeys of BAHAY NA BATO, houses with thick stone or brick ground floors and wooden upper storeys hung with capiz-shell windows that slide rather than swing. THE ARCHITECTURE IS A GENUINE FUSION: Spanish plan, Chinese carpentry and trading money, Ilocano materials, built by a merchant class who were mostly Chinese mestizo. UNESCO INSCRIBED IT IN 1999. BURNAY JARS ARE STILL THROWN AND WOOD-FIRED here. It is also thoroughly commercialised and the calesa horses working the cobbles deserve a look before you hire one. Walk Calle Crisologo at seven in the morning when it is empty and again after dark when it is lit, because they are two different streets and only one of them is photographed.
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Philippines
VIGAN IS ROUGHLY EIGHT TO TEN HOURS BY BUS FROM MANILA, or a short flight into LAOAG and about an hour and a half by road. CALLE CRISOLOGO IS CLOSED TO VEHICLES and is open always and free; it is BUSIEST IN THE EVENING when it is lit and the crowds arrive. MUSEUMS INCLUDING THE SYQUIA MANSION AND CRISOLOGO MUSEUM keep daytime hours and SEVERAL CLOSE ON MONDAYS. THE DANCING FOUNTAIN AT PLAZA SALCEDO runs on a fixed evening schedule. THE BURNAY JAR POTTERY welcomes visitors during working hours and the wheel is worth seeing turned. CALESA RIDES are negotiated at the plaza - LOOK AT THE HORSE FIRST. THE VIGAN LONGGANISA AND EMPANADA are the local food and the empanada stalls at Plaza Burgos are an institution. It is hot; walk early or after five.