Where to Stay in Bilbao, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa

What is Bilbao known for?

Frank Gehry's titanium shell went up on a bend of the Nervión where the cranes had stood, and the city that had shipped iron for centuries became a place people flew in to look at. The food came with it. Pintxo counters line the arcades of Plaza Nueva, and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, the Euskal Museoa and the Itsasmuseum Bilbao fill out the rest of a short list.

What are the main landmarks in Bilbao?

Bilbao keeps its landmarks on both banks of the Nervión. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is the one people come for. Titanium plates curve over the river bend, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum answers it inland with the older collection, and the Itsasmuseum Bilbao keeps the shipbuilding record on the water.

Plaza Nueva squares off the old town. The Church of San Antón stands on the bank at the bridge that carries the city arms, the Euskal Museoa holds the Basque collection nearby, and Alhóndiga Bilbao occupies a wine warehouse a few streets inland.

What is the history of Bilbao?

Bilbao was chartered in 1300. Diego López de Haro gave the town its founding charter on a bend of the Nervión where sea-going boats could still reach, and the seven streets laid out behind the Church of San Antón are the town that grew from it. Iron did the rest.

The ore in the Biscay hills went out through the estuary for centuries, and from the nineteenth century blast furnaces, shipyards and banks turned a river port into the industrial centre of northern Spain. The Ensanche across the water was laid out for that money, and Gran Vía with La Equitativa and the Edificio La Unión y el Fénix on it dates from the same confidence. Then the works closed.

The estuary emptied of cranes through the late twentieth century, the city cleaned the water and pulled down the yards, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened on the cleared quay in 1997. Alhóndiga Bilbao and the Itsasmuseum Bilbao followed the same idea, reusing a wine warehouse and a shipyard slipway. Miguel de Unamuno was born in the old town, and the square that carries his name marks the edge of it.

Where is Bilbao?

Bilbao sits inland from the sea on the Nervión, in a valley the Biscay hills close on both sides. The estuary is tidal all the way up. Ships once reached the old town on it, and the water widens downstream through the industrial towns toward the open Bay of Biscay, which is where the port moved when the ships got too big for the bend.

Green ridges start at the last street.

What is the climate of Bilbao?

The Bay of Biscay keeps Bilbao green. Atlantic fronts come ashore over the estuary through most of the year, so rain is a constant rather than a season, and the hills wring more of it out as the air climbs them. Summers stay mild by Spanish standards.

Snow belongs to the ridges, not the streets.

How do you get to Bilbao?

Bilbao Airport handles the flights from a hillside at Loiu. The road in from it drops straight to the Nervión. Renfe trains terminate at Abando in the middle of the Ensanche, the metro runs the length of the estuary out to the beaches, and the AP-8 motorway carries traffic along the coast toward France.

Ferries still cross from England.