Old Vigan lives! UNESCO World Heritage City

Dr Abe V Rotor

Historic City of Vigan was established in the 16th century, Vigan is the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia. Its architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines, from China and from Europe, resulting in a culture and townscape that have no parallel anywhere in East and South-East Asia.

Plaza Salcedo and St Paul Cathedral

Dancing fountain Plaza Salcedo Park

Vigan is not only a provincial capital

but the ganglion of the Ilocos region.

In fact, it was the Manila of the north,

as Cebu was in the south in Spanish times.

The galleon ships docked here regularly

en route Spain via Acapulco in Mexico,

Vigan was a little Madrid, a little Venice,

a little Berlin, Florence, Vienna, Paris

of then Renaissance Europe,

melanged into its native and Oriental

culture with Asian neighbors.

Colonial Spanish culture flourishes

in today's postmodern world;

its counterparts - Binondo Manila

and Cebu are now in archives,

so with those in other countries.

Vigan is a living history, a living relic of the past

for such a mystery, scholars have yet

to discover the secrets of Vigan,

historians to compare it with the old cities -

grandiose Rome, city states of Greece,

now in ruins, or buried in oblivion.

But Vigan lives! ~

Ride on the historic calesa - to the Spanish colonial times.

Go to the Heritage, center of Spanish culture for almost 400 years, accredited by UNESCO as a world heritage.