Bilbao travel guide
Bilbao is the capital of Vizcaya province and was once the industrial heartland of the Basque Country. The spectacular Museo Guggenheim Bilbao put Bilbao firmly on the cultural map and launched the entire Basque Country into a rebirth of general optimism.
Bilbao's history
The earliest settlements here are said to have been made near the present 15th-century Iglesia de San Antón in the Atxuri district along the Ribera east of the Siete Calles, the ‘Seven Streets’ of the Casco Viejo, or Old Town. The prosperous Casco Viejo was pillaged by the French during the Peninsular War, and much of it was destroyed in the Carlist Wars, but narrow streets and a number of pre-19th-century structures remain. In the 1870s, at the end of the Second Carlist War, Bilbao began to exploit its natural iron deposits and industrialise in a big way. By the end of the century, half the Spanish merchant fleet came from Basque shipyards, much of its steel industry was located near Bilbao, and Basque bankers and businessmen wielded great financial power.
Rejuvenation
Bilbao reinvented itself with the opening in 1997 of a branch of the Guggenheim art gallery, in a building designed by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry. It also has a thriving central district with broad boulevards and leafy parks, a metro system designed by Norman Foster, and the historic Casco Viejo (Old Quarter).
Places to visit in Bilbao
The iconic Guggenheim Museum
The city's big attraction is the Museo Guggenheim. This massive, futuristic structure, funded primarily by the Basque government, has become the symbol of Bilbao, its shimmering titanium roof rising dramatically beside the banks of the Nervión. Inside, 19 spacious galleries on three floors accommodate works predominantly from 1960 to the present day, including works from the Guggenheim collections of New York and Venice.
See more art at the Museo de Bellas Artes
The Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) offers a rich array of Spanish classics – El Greco, Goya, and an honest ‘warts and all’ portrait of Felipe IV by Velázquez – as well as Flemish and Italian masterpieces. The museum’s upper floor is devoted to Basque and international 20th-century art.
Read more from the travel guide to Spain