Two days is enough. Give the first to the Mestizo District on foot: Calle Crisologo at first light, the cathedral and Plaza Salcedo, then the Crisologo and Syquia house museums and the free national museum on Burgos Street. Give the second to the crafts, the burnay yards at Pagburnayan and the abel looms at Camangaan, with the Bantay bell tower before dinner.
Updated · Wimup Editorial
UNESCO calls Vigan an exceptionally intact European trading town in East and South East Asia, which undersells how ordinary it still is: a working provincial capital with a market, a cathedral and five blocks of cobbles where kalesa outnumber cars. The listing came in 1999.
The cobbled spine of the old town, five blocks of stone-and-timber houses with capiz shell windows and tiled roofs. Motor traffic is kept out, so the kalesa have it to themselves. Walk it at first light, before the souvenir shutters go up.
The seat of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia, built in earthquake baroque: thick buttressed walls, a low silhouette and a belfry standing clear of the nave. Vigan's patronal feast, the Conversion of St Paul, falls on 25 January.
The civic square, named for Juan de Salcedo, who founded Villa Fernandina de Vigan here in 1572. After dark the fountain runs a light and music show on the water, and the whole town turns out for it.
The Crisologo family's ancestral house, left much as it was. The bullet-holed car sits in the courtyard and the rooms upstairs document the 1970 assassination of Congressman Floro Crisologo inside Vigan Cathedral.
An 1830 merchant house that became the home of Elpidio Quirino, sixth president of the Philippines, through his marriage to Alicia Syquia. Original furniture, family portraits and presidential papers, shown by a guide rather than by label.
The regional complex, in the ancestral house of Father Jose Burgos, one of the three priests executed in 1872. Ilocano weaving, burnay jars, and the Basi Revolt paintings, a fourteen-panel account of the 1807 uprising against the wine monopoly.
The clay yards at the south end of the old town, where burnay jars are still thrown on a foot-turned wheel and fired in a wood kiln. A carabao treads the clay in the yard, and the potters will hand you the wheel.
The belfry of St Augustine Parish stands on its own hill, apart from the church, because it was built in 1591 to watch the coast as much as to ring. Climb the stair for the tile roofs of Vigan and the Abra river plain.
The row of stalls where Vigan empanada is folded to order: orange rice-flour dough around grated green papaya, longganisa and a whole egg, deep fried and eaten standing up. Sinanglaw and okoy come off the same counters.
Abel Iloko woven on wooden foot looms in a working house rather than a showroom: blankets, runners and the binakol whirlpool pattern. You can watch the shuttle go across and buy straight off the loom.
An 1873 governor's house, restored early and still taking overnight guests.
An 1880s Florentino mansion run as a museum hotel, with Luna and Amorsolo on the walls.
A restored ancestral house on Bonifacio Street, with Kusina Felicitas in the old sala.
St Augustine's, a parish from 1590 and shrine of Our Lady of Charity, under the bell tower.
The parish church at Magsingal, 14 km north of Vigan on the national highway.
Ilocano cooking in the brick-walled sala of Grandpa's Inn. Pipian is the house dish.
Longganisa by the string, bagnet by the kilo, and the town's everyday shopping.
Santo carvings, capiz lamps and abel runners, in the ground floors of the old houses.
A wildlife park on the edge of town across Bulala, Salindeg and Tamag: tigers, camels and ostriches.
The horse-cart loop of the heritage streets, the one piece of sightseeing children ask to repeat.
The grid of stone houses around Calle Crisologo, and the reason for the UNESCO listing.
The largest waterfall in Ilocos Sur, at Santa Maria, with a basin wide enough to swim.
Fiesta week ahead of the feast of the Conversion of St Paul on 25 January, built around the city's garlicky sausage.
Vigan marks its 2001 cityhood on 22 January, inside the same fiesta week.
The province marks its 1818 separation from Ilocos Norte on 2 February, with a week of Ilocano craft and dance.
Holy Week processions leave from the cathedral, and the heritage streets fill again after dark.
The first week of May, around the feast of Apo Lakay at Simbaan a Bassit. Cotton beating, weaving and street dancing.
The UNESCO hilltop church an hour south keeps its patronal feast on 15 August.
From the last week of October to 2 November, light installations fill the old streets after dusk.
All Saints and All Souls, 1 and 2 November. Families keep vigil at the cemetery beside Simbaan a Bassit.
The nearest airport with jet service, 87 km north in Ilocos Norte. Vans and buses run down the national highway to Vigan in about an hour and a half.
Partas and Farinas run overnight deluxe coaches from Manila to their own Vigan terminals, roughly thirteen hours on the national highway.
The default way out to Pagburnayan, Camangaan and the Bantay bell tower. Drivers wait at Plaza Burgos and at the public market.
Horse carts work the heritage streets, which are closed to motor traffic. A loop of the Mestizo District is the standard ride, and the fare is agreed at the stand.
A short, fat pork sausage, heavy on garlic and cured with sugarcane vinegar.
Pork belly boiled, dried and twice fried, until the skin shatters.
Ilocano vegetables simmered in bagoong, the fermented fish paste, rather than in water.
Charred aubergine folded through tomato and egg, served alongside longganisa.
Orange rice-flour crust around green papaya, longganisa and a whole egg, fried to order.
Beef innards soup, soured with kamias and made bitter with bile.
A dense baked rice cake, Vigan's standard pasalubong. Tongson's made it first.
Sugarcane wine fermented in burnay jars, the drink the 1807 revolt was fought over.
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