According to one of the legends, the name of a village Viganj derives from the names of the neighbouring villages, Nakovana and Kućište. The legend says that once upon a time, there lived three brothers, the sons of a blacksmith. One of the brothers inherited “kućište” (the house and the garden), another inherited viganj (blacksmith's bellows), and the third one succeeded nakovanj (anvil).

Each village was named after a brother whose property the village was. However, this is a New Age legend and the blacksmith’s activity has never existed in this area. It is believed that the name is not associated with the blacksmith's activity, but because of frequency of the wind, especially in summer, this area is reminiscent of the blacksmith's bellows and therefore is named Viganj.

In summer 1999 a team of archaeologists accidentally discovered a hidden chamber in the Nakovana Spila. Inside the hidden chamber there was an ancient shrine with remains of Hellenistic pottery scattered all around a falusoid stalagmite located in a central position illuminated with light that passed through the narrow passage. Most of the ceramic dishes were used for consuming food and beverages.

Among the thousands of fragments of the Hellenistic pottery which was close to the stalagmite in Spila, the archaeologists found thirty tiny fragments of Ivory. The reconstruction showed that they were Zodiacal symbols, which were once attached to a wooden base, so called the "Astrologer’s Board". Such boards were used by ancient Astrologers to interpret horoscopes for their clients. According to the context and direct radiocarbon date, the extremely rare archaeological finding, dates from the time around the year 100 BC, making it the earliest known Natal horoscope.

The maritime development in the world brought an increasing prosperity to Viganj in the early 17. Century. In that period navigation was so “popular” that almost all the male population was at sea. Apart from the ships sailing under the flag of Dubrovnik, the men from Viganj sailed at the Venetian, Austrian, Russian, French, Spanish and English ships. After some time they became rich and start to build magnificent captain's houses. The highlight of the Pelješac maritime glory was in the mid-19th century when, among the others, the Kovačević family from Viganj established its own maritime company “Brothers Kovačević”, with its headquarters in Marseilles. 117 captains came from Viganj during that period.