Sights in Bilbao
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Museo Guggenheim
Opened in September 1997, Bilbao’s Museo Guggenheim lifted modern architecture and Bilbao into the 21st century – with sensation. It boosted the city’s already inspired regeneration, stimulated further development and placed Bilbao firmly in the world art and tourism spotlight.
Some might say, probably quite rightly, that structure overwhelms function here and that the Guggenheim is more famous for its architecture than its content. But Canadian architect Frank Gehry’s inspired use of flowing canopies, cliffs, promontories, ship shapes, towers and flying fins is irresistible.
Like all great architects, Gehry designed the Guggenheim with historical and geographical…
reviewed
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Casco Viejo
The compact Casco Viejo, Bilbao’s atmospheric old quarter, is full of charming streets, boisterous bars and plenty of quirky and independent shops. At the heart of the Casco are Bilbao’s original seven streets, Las Siete Calles, which date from the 1400s.
The 14th-century Gothic Catedral de Santiago has a splendid Renaissance portico and pretty little cloister. Further north, the 19th-century arcaded Plaza Nueva is a rewarding pintxo (Basque tapas) haunt. There’s a lively Sunday-morning flea market here, which is full of secondhand book and record stalls, and pet ‘shops’ selling chirpy birds (some kept in old-fashioned wooden cages), fluffy mice and tiny baby…
reviewed
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Museo de Bellas Artes
A mere five minutes from Museo Guggenheim is Bilbao’s Museo de Bellas Artes. The museum houses a compelling collection that includes everything from Gothic sculptures to 20th-century pop art. There are three main subcollections: classical art, with works by Murillo, Zurbarán, El Greco, Goya and van Dyck; contemporary art, featuring works by Gauguin, Francis Bacon and Anthony Caro; and Basque art, with works of the great sculptors Jorge de Oteiza and Eduardo Chillida, and strong paintings by the likes of Ignacio Zuloago and Juan de Echevarria. A useful audio guide costs €1. The museum is wheelchair accessible.
reviewed
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Open Air Gallery, Museo Guggenheim
One of the joys of the Guggenheim experience is to take a quiet wander around the outside of the building, appreciating the extraordinary imagination behind its design and catching the different colours reflected by the titanium tiles, limestone and glass. Lying between the glass buttresses of the central atrium and Ría de Bilbao is a simple pool of water that emits at intervals a mist 'sculpture' by Fuyiko Nakaya.
Nearby on the riverbank is a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, a skeletal canopy representing a spider entitled Maman, said to represent a protective embrace.
In the open area to the west of the museum a fountain sculpture fires off jets of water into the air…
reviewed
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Euskal Museoa
This museum is probably the most complete museum of Basque culture and history in all the Basque regions. The story kicks off back in the days of prehistory and from this murky period the displays bound rapidly through to the modern age. The main problem with the museum is that, unless you speak Spanish (or perhaps you studied Euskara at school?), it’s all a little meaningless as, amazingly, there are no English or French translations.
The museum is housed in a fine old building, at the centre of which is a peaceful cloister that was part of an original 17th-century Jesuit college. In the cloister is the Mikeldi Idol, a powerful pre-Christian, possibly Iron Age,…
reviewed
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Euskal Museoa
This museum is probably the most complete museum of Basque culture and history in all of Spain. The story kicks off back in the days of prehistory and from this murky period the displays bound rapidly through to the modern age.
The main problem with the museum is that, unless you speak Spanish (or perhaps you studied Euskara at school?), it’s all a little meaningless as there are no English or French translations.
The museum is housed in a fine old building, at the centre of which is a peaceful cloister that was part of an original 17th-century Jesuit college. In the cloister is the Mikeldi Idol, a powerful pre-Christian, possibly Iron Age, symbolic figure.
The museum is…
reviewed
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Funicular de Artxanda
Bilbao is a city hemmed by hills and mountains into a tight valley. For a breathtaking view over the city, the valley it sits in and the wild Basque mountains beyond, take a trip on the funicular railway that has creaked and moaned its way up the steep slope to the summit of Artxanda for nearly a century.
reviewed
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Museo Marítimo Ría de Bilbao
This space-age maritime museum, appropriately sited down on the waterfront, uses bright and well-thought-out displays to bring the watery depths of Bilbao and Basque maritime history to life. There’s an outdoor section where children (and nautically inclined grown-ups) can clamber about a range of boats pretending to be pirates and sailors.
reviewed
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Arkeologi Museo
Through the use of numerous flashing lights, beeping things and a fair few spearheads and old pots, this museum reinforces the point that the inhabitants of this corner of Spain have lived here for a very long time indeed. Labelling is in Spanish and Basque only.
reviewed
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Catedral de Santiago
Catedral de Santiago has a splendid Renaissance portico and pretty little cloister.
reviewed
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Plaza Nueva
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Parque de Doña Casilda de Iturrizar
Floating on waves of peace and quiet just beyond the Museo de Bellas Artes is another work of fine art – the Parque de Doña Casilda de Iturrizar. The centrepiece of this whimsical park is the large pond filled with ornamental ducks and other waterfowl.
reviewed
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Museo de Bellas Artes
A mere five minutes from Museo Guggenheim is Bilbao’s Museo de Bellas Artes. More than just a complement to the Guggenheim, it often seems to actually exceed its more famous cousin for content.
The museum houses a compelling collection that includes everything from Gothic sculptures to 20th-century pop art. There are three main subcollections: classical art, with works by Murillo, Zurbarán, El Greco, Goya and van Dyck; contemporary art, featuring works by Gauguin, Francis Bacon and Anthony Caro; and Basque art, with works of the great sculptors Jorge de Oteiza and Eduardo Chillida, and strong paintings by the likes of Ignacio Zuloago and Juan de Echevarria.
As with the…
reviewed