Museo Guggenheim Bilbao

Shimmering ceramic Museo Guggenheim Bilbao is certainly one of architecture’s most iconic buildings. It played a major role in assisting together with sensation and into the 21st century — to lift Bilbao. It sparked regeneration’s inspired, stimulated development and placed Bilbao firmly.

Museo de Bellas Artes

The Museo de Bellas Artes houses a compelling collection which features everything in Gothic sculptures to pop art. There are 3 chief subcollections: classical art, together with works by Murillo, Zurbarán, El Greco, Goya and van Dyck; contemporary art, including works by Gauguin, Francis Bacon and Anthony Caro; and Basque art, together with works of the great sculptors Jorge Oteiza and Eduardo Chillida, and strong paintings by the likes of Ignacio Zuloaga and Juan p Echevarría.

Euskal Museoa

One of Spain’s finest museums devoted to Basque civilization takes individuals on a journey from Palaeolithic days to the 21st century, even giving an overview of life among the ship builders, mariners, shepherds and musicians that have left their mark on modern Basque identity. Displays of looms clothing, fishing baits, model boats, wood-cutters’ axes, sheep bells and instruments illustrate every day life, while legendary around stones help segue in issues of Basque rituals and beliefs.

Museo Marítimo Ría de Bilbao

This interactive maritime museum, appropriately situated back on the waterfront, uses screens to bring the depths of maritime history and Bilbao to life. Start by watching the 10-minute video, that provides a summary of Bilbao history from the 1300s to the present, then ramble throughout both floors of displays, which reveal obsolete ship building techniques, harrowing shipwrecks (and innovative coastal rescue strategies), pirate threats and artfully constructed models — including a more full blown diversion of the 1511 Consulate Barge.

Casco Viejo

The compact Casco Viejo is packed with boisterous bars streets and lots of independent and quirky shops. At the core of the Casco have been Bilbao’s original seven roads, Las Siete Calles, that date from the 1400s.

Azkuna Zentroa (Alhóndiga)

Simply take a failed wine storage container, convert it to some leisure and cultural facility, add a little Bilbao style and the result could be the Azkuna Zentroa (Alhóndiga). Produced by architect Philippe Starck, it now houses a theatre, an art gallery, and a roof top swimming pool with a media center, a glass bottom, restaurants and cafes. The ground floor is famous because of its 43 tubby columns, and each assembled with a design.

Arkeologi Museo

This two-storey museum takes you deep into the past, you start with fossils observed in the Sierra de Atapuerca a mere 430,000(!) Years past. On the 2nd floor you’ll observe models of Celtiberian carvings ancient villages, along with statues and fragments from the Roman time; descend in to the ensuing dark ages and the occasions. Stones for catapults, a 10th century trephined skull and jewellery from the 1200s are other curiosities.

Basilica de Begoña

This basilica towers across the Casco Viejo from atop a nearby hill. It’s chiefly Gothic in appearance, although Renaissance touches, such as the arched entry, crept in during its construction. The rustic shining interior is brightened by a gold altarpiece that contains a statue of the Virgin Begoña, also the patron saint of Biscay who is venerated locally as Amatxu (Mother).

Catedral de Santiago

Towering above all in the Casco Viejo (even though strangely invisible in the narrow roads ) may be the Catedral de Santiago, which features a pleasing cloister and Gothic Revival facade. Bilbao’s oldest church, the palace dates back to the 14 th century, although Renaissance portico was inserted in 1571. Above the main entry, you are going to spot scallop cubes — symbols of Santiago (St James) and a reference for pilgrims in the northern course of the Camino de Santiago.

Las Siete Calles

Forming the heart of Bilbao’s Casco Viejo are seven streets Called the Siete Calles (Zazpi Kaleak in Basque). These shadowy, atmospheric lanes — Barrenkale Barrena Belostikale Carnicería Vieja, Tendería, Artekale and Somera — date into the 1400s once the east bank of this Ría del Nervión was initially developed. They originally constituted the town’s commercial centre and river port; these days they teem with lively cafes, pintxo pubs and boutiques.

Parque de Doña Casilda de Iturrizar

Floating on waves of serenity and quiet beyond the Museo de Bellas Artes is another job of fine art — the Parque de Doña Casilda p Iturrizar. The centre piece with this space that is green that is elegant, which was performed in 1920, will be the small pond full of swans and ducks.

Museo Athletic Club

A necessity for all AC Bilbao fans, this high tech museum delves in to the club’s epic ago, using trophies and gear . Touch screens permit game highlights to be seen by you throughout the last half century. For the entire adventure, tack onto a 45-minute stadium tour that takes you to the media room, the rooms and outside onto the pitch.

Plaza Nueva

The most important square of the old town, Plaza Nueva is lined with pintxos bars tucked in the arch-lined colonnades. The square opened after having a half century of construction in 1851, and it’s an integral gathering area during festivals and concerts. On Sundays, the perimeter is lined by a market of books, coins and a few antiques.

Zubizuri

The most striking of those contemporary bridges which span the R-IA del Nervión, the Zubizuri (famous for’White Bridge’) has been an iconic feature of Bilbao’s cityscape since its conclusion in 1997. Produced by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, it has a rounded walkway suspended under a flowing arch to which a streak of steel spokes attached it.

Funicular de Artxanda

Bilbao is a city hemmed in by hills and hills, living in a tight valley. For a stunning view across the wild freshwater mountains outside and the city, have a trip on the funicular railway that has creaked and moaned up its way up the steep slope.

Iglesia San Nicolás de Bari

This church by the entrance to the Casco Viejo was dedicated in 1756. Focused on St Nicholas of Bari, the patron saint of sailors, and it includes a baroque facade emblazoned with stone work across the portal, and 2 fire bottoms.

Estadio San Mamés

Home of team Athletic Bilbao, Bilbao’s modern football stadium, overlooks the river. It’s within easy walking distance in the San Mamés metro station. There is a good cafe and pintxos bar in the arena.

Plaza de Federico Moyúa

With traffic that is turning and its fountains, Plaza de Federico Moyúa is the core of the Ensanche. It’s home to the Hotel Carlton that is royal the hotel of preference for other luminaries, Hemmingway and Einstein.

Concordia Train Station

Even the Concordia rail station, with its art nouveau facade of wrought iron and tiles, has been constructed in 1902 and for decades provided attention and shade in a city.

Museo Taurino de Bilbao

Although Bilbao isn’t a bull-fighting city at the manner of the towns of Andalucía, the crowds here are thought of by matadors to be to please. The town’s bullring, an 1960s looking bulge of concrete that brings to mind that the Bilbao of old, houses a small museum dedicated to this fight’s neighborhood history as well as the bulls. The collection consists of fancy matador outfits along with hundreds of posters that are bull fight.

Universidad de Deusto

On footbridge that is Reachable via the Pedro Arrupe, and the west bank of This Ría del Nervión, the Shore is dominated by the Universidad de Deusto. This edifice, which had been created by the architect Francisco de Cubas, was clearly one of Bilbao’s biggest buildings if it was built to accommodate the Jesuit university in 1886.

Plaza del Arenal

The morphing ground between your Casco Viejo and also the parts of Bilbao is a big open space that usually plays host to displays. On Sunday mornings it’s home to a flower marketplace.