BEAUTIFUL TOWNS - BILBAO
Coast | Inland | Cities | Santiago Road
Although it is not strictly speaking a coastal city, it is a seafaring city. The Letter of Incorporation granted around 1300 by Don Diego Lopez to the small fishing town that became the original Bilbao, allowed the city to become a commercial reference point, growing to the modern city that it is today.
And after its industrial renovation, Bilbao has become a reference point for culture and modernization, without losing sight of its past. The striking Guggenheim Museum, the remodelled Fine Arts Museum, and the extremely modern Euskalduna Palace, among others, have converted Bilbao into a destination of incomparable appeal.
Places of interest
Guggenheim
The magnificent structure designed by Gehry for Bilbao is made up of a combination
of buildings interconnected through a striking central atrium, in which metal,
stone, and water merge to evoke the Basque Country's force, independence, and
commercial and industrial traditions.
The museum assembles three types of exhibit areas. The permanent collection is exhibited chronologically in nine rectangular galleries in an encyclopaedic arrangement. Completing the museum are other artistic spaces dedicated to a specific series of arties, distributed among nine particularly shaped galleries. The temporary exhibits and the larger works are displayed in a gallery unique for its exceptional dimensions (30 meters wide and 130 meters long, with no columns).
Fine Arts Museum
Recently reinaugurated and expanded, the Fine Arts Museum is considered the second
art gallery in Spain after the Prado of Madrid. It offers three primary collections:
Ancient Art (El Greco, Zurbarán, Ribera, Goya, Van Dyck...); Contemporary
Art (Gauguin, Bacon, Menz, Solana, Tapies..), and Basque Art (Regoyos, Zuloaga,
Arteta...).
Old City Quarter
Without doubt, the Old City Quarter is one of the most vibrant areas of Bilbao.
It is the oldest part of the town, an area with unique charm, where we can
enjoy its many shops, bars, and restaurants.