Vigan🇵🇭

Two cobblestoned blocks of preserved late-18th-century Spanish-Filipino mestizo houses — wooden upper floors above thick stone ground floors, capiz-shell sliding windows, deep eaves. Closed to motor traffic; horse-drawn calesa carriages clop over the stones from morning until late evening. The street is lit by warm streetlamps after dark, when the evening photo-walk happens. Free; the lifeblood of any Vigan visit.

A separate four-storey bell tower built in 1591 by Augustinian friars in the neighbouring barrio of Bantay, 2 km from central Vigan. The tower is freestanding from the adjacent St Augustine Church (the original architects deliberately separated bell tower from church to prevent earthquake damage). Climb the wooden interior stairs for panoramic views of the surrounding paddy and the church courtyard. Free; small donation appreciated.

The seat of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia, built 1574 (current structure 1790-1800) in the "earthquake baroque" style — squat, thick-walled, with exterior buttresses. Whitewashed exterior; a richly gilded interior with a notable silver-clad altar. Sits on Plaza Salcedo, the main civic square of the historic centre.

The main town square, named for Vigan's founder Juan de Salcedo. Dominated by an obelisk monument to Salcedo, with the cathedral on one side and the colonial Casa Real (provincial capitol) on another. The Dancing Fountain show — a 30-minute evening light-and-water display synchronised to music — runs at 7:30 PM nightly and is the town's post-dinner gathering point. Free.

The traditional clay-jar (burnay) workshops on the city's northern edge, where local potters still throw the dark, salt-glazed earthen jars used across northern Luzon for storing bagoong (fermented fish), basi (sugarcane wine), and rice. The Ruby Pottery workshop is the standard visitor stop — you can watch the wheel-throwing, kiln-firing, and try the wheel for a few pesos. Free demo; pay for any pottery you take home.

A century-old ancestral mestizo house converted to a museum about the Crisologo political dynasty (the family for whom Calle Crisologo was renamed). The house preserves period furniture, capiz windows, and the original layout — a useful contrast to the empty exteriors you see on the street. Located inside the historic centre, easy walk from Calle Crisologo. Donation entry (PHP 20-50).

The cluster of empanada-makers around Plaza Burgos (the smaller plaza adjacent to the cathedral), where the orange-tinted Ilocano empanada is hand-folded and deep-fried to order on cast-iron pans. The Vigan empanada has a rice-flour shell tinted with achuete (annatto), filled with grated green papaya, mung beans, longanisa sausage, and a whole egg cracked in. PHP 50-80 each; eat with sukang Iloko (cane vinegar).

A 4 km drive north of Calle Crisologo, this nursery-and-restaurant complex is set among orchids, koi ponds, and tropical trees. Lilong and Lilang serves the Ilocano food canon — bagnet, pinakbet, poque-poque (grilled eggplant) — at fair prices in a garden setting. The single best place outside the historic centre for a long, complete Ilocano lunch. PHP 600-1,200 for two.