Vigan, The Philippines world cities wonders

Vigan, The Philippines world cities wonders

Vigan, officially the City of Vigan  is a fourth class city and capital of the province of Ilocos Sur in the Philippines. The city is located on the western coast of the large island of Luzon, facing the South China Sea. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 53,879 people.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in that it is one of the few Hispanic towns left in the Philippines where its structures have 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. In May 2015, Vigan City was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Beirut, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur, and La Paz.

New7Wonders Foundation president and founding member Bernard Weber led a ceremony held at St. Paul Cathedral where he handed a bronze plaque to Vigan Mayor Eva Grace Singson-Medina, signifying the heritage city’s election as one of the world’s wonder cities.

Former Philippine president Elpidio Quirino, the sixth president of the Philippines, was born in Vigan, at the former location of the Provincial Jail (his father was a warden); and resided in the Syquia Mansion. The city is also one of the only two members, the other being the town of Miagao in Iloilo, of the UNESCO World Heritage Cities located in the Philippines.