igan: A Glimpse into the Past

Located at the mouth of the Abra River, Vigan was a coastal trading post in pre-colonial era. Seafaring merchants came to Isla de Bigan to barter goods from Asian and Mid-East kingdoms with gold, beeswax and other mountain products brought down from the Cordilleras. Migrants, mostly from China, settled in Vigan, intermarried with the natives and started the multi-cultural bloodline of Bigueños.

In 1572, Spanish Conquistador Juan de Salcedo arrived in Bigan and made it the capital of his encomienda (fiefdom) covering most of Northwestern Luzon. Augustinian friars pioneered the Christianization of the Ylokos region. In 1758, the seat of Nueva Segovia comprising the entire Northern Luzon was transferred to Vigan by virtue of a Royal Decree issued by King Ferdinand VI, elevating Vigan’s status to that of a city named Ciudad Fernandina de Vigan. For more than three centuries, Vigan was the center of political, religious, commercial, social and cultural activities in the north.

Illustrious Bigeuños who influenced the course of our national destiny include Fr. Jose Burgos of the GOMBURZA fame, Leona Florentino, a playwright and poetess, Isabelo delos Reyes, founder of the Philippine Labor Movement and co-founder of the Philippine Independent Church, Don Vicente Encarnacion, one of the seven wise men who drafted the 1935 Philippine Constitution, Pres. Elpidio Quirino, the first Ilocano President of the Philippine Republic, and Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson, whose courage to tell the truth triggered the ouster of a President.