Vigan City
The City of Vigan is a fourth class city in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It is the capital of the Province of Ilocos Sur. The city is located on the western coast of the large island of Luzon, facing the South China Sea.
It is a World Heritage Site and that it is one of the few Hispanic
towns left in the Philippines where its structures remained intact, and
is well known for its cobblestone streets, and a unique architecture
that fuses Philippine and Oriental building designs and construction,
with colonial European architecture.
Former Philippine president Elpidio Quirino, the sixth president of the Philippines,
was born in Vigan, at the current location of the Provincial Jail (his
father was a warden); and resided in the Syquia Mansion.
Vigan is only 408 kilometers away from Manila, 45 kilometers away from Laoag City, and 139 kilometers away from San Fernando, La Union, the regional capital.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigan_City
For only a minimal amount of Php150, one can already tour the nearby tourist attractions for an hour.
Calle Crisologo, named after Don Mena Crisologo, the first Civil
Governor of Ilocos Sur during the American regime was the commercial
district of Vigan during the Spanish and early American period. The old
name of this district is “Kasanglayan” or place of the Chinese.The
houses all along the street served a double purpose then, the ground
floor were occupied by shops (mostly owned by the Chinese) that sold dry
goods while the second floors functioned as residences. Now the ground
floors of the houses were converted into shops, catering to the tourist
trade by their offerings of souvenirs, furniture, and genuine antiques
and samples of authentic Ilocano weaving in different kinds of “Abel”
cloth.
http://www.vigancity.gov.ph/featured.asp
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| with kuya Aldwin, my officemate =) |
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| with Juniper, the great driver =) |
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| Vigan Cathedral |
Vigan Cathedral (also known as St. Paul Metropolitan Cathedral) is an earthquake Baroque-styled church built in 1574 commissioned by Spaniard Juan de Salcedo located in the Ilocos region.
The first Vigan Cathedral was ordered and built in 1574 by Juan de
Salcedo. Another version of the church was again constructed in 1641
but was unfortunately destroyed by an earthquake. A reconstructed
church was gutted with fire in 1739. The current church was constructed
in 1790 and was finished in 1800.
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| inside the cathedral |
Vigan Cathedral features Neo-Gothic and pseudo Romanesque motifs.
The baroque-styled church has thick buttresses to support it through
earthquakes and typhoons.
On January 31, 1790, the cornerstone of the present Vigan
Cathedral was placed. Most of the original features of the church
interior are still intact. The Cathedral has twelve altars with
hammered-silver panels, three naves, and a choir loft. Above the main
doorway is an alcove that depicts the conversion of St. Paul. After four
years the walls were finished, all in stone, the baptistery was
completed together with the side chapels; the beautiful facade was
finished up to the cornice and the wall at the back of the cathedral was
also ready. The Church's main door held by two pairs of columns which
rise to the second tier of the facade. The moldings on its facade and
the brass communion rails give hints of the Chinese influence in the
church's designs and architecture. Its bell tower stands separately in
Plaza Burgos, 10 meters south of the cathedral. The bell tower is about
25 meters high and it is surmounted by a large bronze weathercock that
is said to symbolize St Peter. The cathedral was the first building in
Ilocos with tiles on the roof.
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| the old type of structures with modern establishments |
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| Vigan plaza |
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| the Ilocos Sur capitol |
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| Vigan at night |
Vigan is one of the 28 finalists in the New 7 Wonder Cities of the World with voting due December 07, 2014. Vote Vigan for New 7 Wonder Cities!!! Cast your votes at www.n7w.com/en/cities
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