Discover Bilbao

A taste of Bilbao

Bilbao is the textbook case study of how a single building can completely transform a city's fortunes — the 1997 opening of Frank Gehry's titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum, a swirling sculptural fantasy on the bank of the Nervión river, pulled the city overnight from a depressed post-industrial port into one of Europe's most-visited cultural destinations. The Guggenheim itself is still the headline draw (the building is the artwork; the contemporary art collection inside is excellent but secondary), with Jeff Koons' enormous flower-covered Puppy guarding the front entrance, Louise Bourgeois' giant bronze spider 'Maman' on the river side, and Anish Kapoor's reflective 'Tall Tree and the Eye' completing the outdoor sculpture trio. Don't miss the rest of regenerated Bilbao: the brilliant Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (excellent on Basque modernism, particularly Aurelio Arteta), the wonderfully designed Azkuna Zentroa cultural centre (an old wine warehouse converted by Philippe Starck), the Norman Foster metro system, and Santiago Calatrava's Zubizuri pedestrian bridge over the river. The medieval Casco Viejo (Old Quarter) on the right bank, with its seven streets and the dramatic Santiago Cathedral, has the best pintxos bars (the Basque small-plate tradition that's better than tapas; start at La Viña del Ensanche).