Calle Crisologo [My World]

No visit to Vigan would be complete until you walked through this street---Calle Crisologo at the Kamestizoan District.  It is a half-kilometer stretch of cobblestoned street lined with 18th century Filipino-Spanish architecture and replete with an old world charm.   While strolling at Calle Crisologo, look up and see the azoteas, capiz windows, ornamental ironwork and imagine young mestizas in  Maria Clara dresses giggling behind their abaniko (a hand-held fan).  The clacking noise of horse-driven carriage we call kalesa completes the ambiance of Vigan more than a century ago.

kalesas along Calle Crisologo

The old mansions at Calle Crisologo now house handicraft and curio shops, some furniture and antique dealers, pension houses and restaurants---I even spied a funeral parlor. We purchased a few touristy items here, also bought Abel-Iloko blankets---handwoven blankets known as Abel-weaving, one of the surviving traditional crafts in Vigan;  browsed through second-hand books, and had coffee at The Perfect Cup, Vigan's version of Starbucks.

Vigan City, the capital of Ilocos Sur and 407 kilometers north of Manila, has the most extensive surviving ancestral houses that dates back to the 15th century Spanish colonial period.  West of the city is the South China Sea, it is accessible by land and by air from Manila, Baguio, Laoag and other parts of Luzon.

old world charm

the most photographed street in Vigan

Calle Crisologo at dusk

This post is linked to My World-Tuesday