The so called Ensanche is a wide area comprising the districts of Abando and
Indautxu, which nowadays combines residential and commercial uses. The
area grew at the beginning of the 20th century with the industrial development
of the city, initially only as a residential neighbourhood, but then gradually
pulling the administrative and commercial activities.
The Ensanche streets are organized around Gran Vía, an axis which
connects three main squares: Plaza Circular, which gives way to the Old
Quarter, Plaza Moyúa, which plays the role of geographical center with
streets departing radially from it, and Plaza del Sagrado Corazón, the west
end of the area, where important facilities are located, such as the
Euskalduna Conference Centre, the Bus Terminal ( TermiBus), the Basurto Hospital and the San
Mames football stadium.
Around Gran Vía, a variety of establishments and stores can be found: banks,
department stores, international brands, bookshops, bakeries, pharmacies,
etc. The quarter is plenty of hotels, restaurants, bars (some of them offering
live music) and cafes, with outdoor terraces that are full of people when the
weather is good. Some streets are famous for their lively atmosphere:
Ledesma, Diputación, Heros, Licenciado Poza, Egaña, etc. Many interesting
buildings and places are located in this part of the city: Paseo de Uribitarte,
Isozaki Towers, Zubi Zuri Bridge, Plaza de los Jardines de Albia, Teatro
Campos Elíseos, Estación de Abando and Azkuna Zentroa (Alhóndiga Bilbao,
an early twentieth-century wine warehouse now transformed into a groovy
public leisure/cultural centre with a swimming pool that boasts a transparent
floor, allowing you to view the soles of swimmers’ feet from the entrance hall
below).
This area also features a parkland, Parque de Doña Casilda, just behind the
Fine Arts Museum, which connects with
Abandoibarra, a perfect place to walk, run or simply sit and read a book while
enjoying a sunny morning.
Overview
When the city of Bilbao was founded over 700 years ago, its inhabitants
made their living from market gardens and fishing, and the river was
beginning to emerge as the best means of communication with the outside
world. There were at that time two different centres of population; on the one
hand, the left bank or Bilbao la Vieja, which was a mining area where iron
was worked in the foundries, and secondly, the right bank, called the Old
Quarter (Casco Viejo), which engaged in commerce and port activities. The
heart of the Old Quarter was surrounded by walls and consisted of three
parallel streets. Later it became necessary to take down the walls and build
four streets perpendicular to the river, which along with the first three, make
up what is known today as the Seven Streets.
When, on August 26th, 1983, the river breached its banks causing severe
flooding in the Old Quarter and Bilbao La Vieja, few imagined how the district
would evolve in the forthcoming years. An ambitious development plan has
met the objectives of keeping people living in these areas, attracting new
residents and improving living standards. Today, that fateful summer day is
just a myth, reminded by commemorative plaques indicating the maximum
level reached by water. The Old Quarter and Bilbao La Vieja have become a
magnet for locals and tourists alike with its varied and lively atmosphere of
shops, bars and restaurants.
Hot spots
The Old Quarter contains a handful of treasures such as the Neoclassical
Plaza Nueva, the Church of San Anton, Santiago’s Cathedral and the Arriaga
Theatre. El Arenal is the entrance to the Old Quarter and extends from the
City Hall to the Arriaga Theatre. It was formerly a sandy area that shaped an
inner beach, dock and shipyard, changing over the years until the nineteenth
century, when the whole area was drained and shaped to its current form,
with gardens, fountains and ponds.
The Unamuno Square and the Mallona stairs, along with the nearby Iturribide
street, are one of the liveliest places (kind of crossroad) in the Old Quarter.
The square includes the entrance to an underground station and is close to
the Plaza Nueva, so there is always people walking in all directions.
La Ribera Market is a landmark of Bilbao and therefore a must, specially for
those that enjoy the view and taste of fresh food (vegetables, fish and meat)
in a lively atmosphere. The activity dates back to the fourteenth century when
a market area was created outdoors next to the Church of San Anton. The
current building was opened in 1929, according to Pedro Ispizua project, with
a singular modernist architecture and an art deco ornamentation. The building
has been recently remodeled and is now equipped with the best infrastructure
for vendors and customers.
Bilbao La Vieja
Compared with the districts of Abandoibarra and Casco Viejo, the process of
renewal arrived somewhat later in Bilbao la Vieja. However, much more than
any other place in the city this colourful and lively neighbourhood is a
multiethnic melting pot of all ages and walks of life, with many different
languages spoken here thanks to the steady flow of immigration Bilbao has
witnessed in recent years. If you’re after a taste of Bilbao’s legendary ‘grit’,
then a wander here is as much a must-do as a trip to the Guggenheim. In
Bilbao La Vieja, art galleries (with expositions of young emerging artists) set
up shop alongside goldsmiths, Moroccan restaurants, healthcare centres,
convents and night clubs.
In addition, the neighbourhood’s artistic expression gives it the freedom to
turn the Church of La Merced, for example, into Bilborock Music Centre, with
multiuse rooms and rehearsal studios all under one roof. There is also Bilbao
Arte on Urazurrutia Street, a local art workshop aimed at promoting and
offering training to young and aspiring artists. Periodically, a street market is
organized on Saturday mornings in 2 de Mayo and the surrounding streets,
with live concerts and shows, pop-up shops and roadside stands with
innovative handmade designs.
The Basque Counry is renowned in Spain for its gastronomy, and Bilbao is
full of restaurants, from the most traditional to the most sophisticated (and
expensive). Except for some highly demanded places, you won’t need to
make a reservation. The day menu (Menú del Día) that is offered at lunch
time (from 1 to 3 pm) in many restaurants around the city, consists of two
dishes plus a dessert, tap water (which is excellent) and bread included.
Prices range from 10 to 15 €. For dining, you may first take into account that
most restaurants start serving dinner at 9 pm. As a rule of thumb, things
happen two hours later than in your country. See our recommendation section
for particular places. Prices for dinner range from 30 to 50 €.
No visit to Bilbao (and the Basque Country in general) would be complete
without trying pintxos (pronounced pin-choss), the local (but much better)
version of Spanish tapas. If you’re vegetarian, you might want to have a local
order for you to avoid any nasty surprises. Locals often do a crawl of pintxos
in the bars of a particular area, snaffling plates of the snacks with their drinks.
You may find a dozen bars in a relatively short street, with people drinking
and chatting on the sidewalks. This pintxos crawl is typically done on
Saturday and Sunday from noon, but also in the evenings, from about 7 to 9
pm (before dinner, or more frequently, instead of dining).
At peak times, streets and plazas in the Old Quarter (Casco Viejo) and
pedestrian areas of the modern town (Ensanche), such as Ledesma,
Diputación and Egaña, are filled with people strolling from bar to bar, stopping
to chat with neighbors and friends, children in tow, grazing on pintxos. The
insiders stop in for only the specialties of the house, then move on. Hat’s off
to them, because it’s really hard to pull yourself away from the bar when
you’re enjoying the delicious nuggets of jamon and a glass of red wine or the
typical txakolí (young, fresh and fruity white wine produced in the Basque
Country). But we recommend sampling lots of different places.
With regard to drinking, you will note that most people are just holding the
glass without tasting it for minutes, standing in the same place and chatting,
then moving to another bar, not too far away. Besides beer, the most popular
drink is red wine, specially the Rioja crianza, tasted in small sips. Curiously,
people in Bilbao drink small rations of beer, called zuritos, which they sip just
as they were glasses of wine. But don’t panic: you can also ask for a whole
beer. Prices are reasonable: 2 € for a beer, 1.5/2 € for a glass of red wine or
txakolí, and 1/1.5 € for a pintxo.
Athletic Club is, historically, the third most successful football club in Spain.
As well as being one of only three clubs never relegated from the top division
of La Liga – there are no prizes for knowing the other two – they are also third
in the number of titles won over the years. Recently, the team claimed their
first trophy in three decades when they wrapped up a 5-1 aggregate over
Barcelona to win the Spanish Super Cup.
Most football followers know about the long-standing “Basque only” policy of
Athletic, which has been the subject of much debate, but I suspect that fewer
are aware of the benefit that this concentration on home-grown players has
had to the Spanish national squad. Athletic Club has had more players
representing Spain than any other Spanish club – including Real Madrid and
Barcelona. The club has continued its tradition of signing players born in the
Basque provinces of Spain or France, although in the late 1980s this was
broadened to include players who had moved to the region at a young age.
From the outside, the brand new stadium of Athletic Club, called San Mames
Berria, may seem like any other stadium, but La Catedral (The Cathedral), as
it is known in Spain, offers the greatest sport atmosphere in Spain, much the
same way as an English football stadium. Players here are called lions
because the first stadium was built near a church called Saint Mammes, after
the saint who was thrown to the lions by the Romans but, in a turn of fortune,
the animals refused to eat him. Before a game, crowds of fans dressed in
white and red (the team colours) gather in the bars on nearby Licenciado
Poza street to get one or two drinks and pintxos. The festive atmosphere is
unbelievable with many groups belting out traditional songs.
An Irish visitor’s opinion taken from TripAdvisor: “San Mamés is a fantastic
new stadium with the stands right on top of the pitch. The people of Bilbao
treat Athletic like a religion and it was a great experience to be a part of it.
The stadium is in the middle of the city and is an integral part of the city.
There is no worries about public transport that can be problematic for other
stadia. Hundreds of bars and restaurants surround the stadium and help
generate a fantastic pre/post match atmosphere. If you love soccer, San
Mamés should be on your must see list.”
Culture
Walks
- By the river (3 km, 45 min.): from the City Hall to Olabeaga, starting on the
right bank and crossing to the left bank through Zubi Zuri
- Casco Viejo (wandering and shopping): from El Arenal to San Antón, crossing
Plaza Nueva, Unamuno square, Santiagos’s Cathedral and La Ribera Market
- Gran Vía (2 km, 30 min.): from Plaza Circular to Plaza del Sagrado Corazón,
with detours to Jardines de Albia and Parque de Doña Casilda
Pintxos and more (must-go places by area)
- Ledesma / Jardines de Albia: Iruña, Artajo, El Puertito, Bilbao Berria
- Heros / Henao: Ad Hoc, Marvellous, Bistrot, El Figón, Pikata, Singular
- Diputación: El Globo, La Viña, La Olla
- Maestro García Rivero: El Huevo Frito, Okela
- Plaza Nueva: Víctor Montes, Café Bar Bilbao, Sorginzulo
- Casco Viejo: Rio Oja, Xukela, Txiriboga, Irrintzi
- Plaza Unamuno / Iturribide: Muga, Melilla y Fez
Restaurants
- Arbolagaña, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum
- Bascook, Barroeta Aldamar, 8
- Casa Rufo, Hurtado de Amézaga, 5
- Etxanobe, Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall
- Loroño, Alameda Recalde, 53
- Mina, Muelle de Marzana
- Mugarra, Ercilla, 14
- Nerua, Guggenheim Bilbao Museum
- Txakolí Simón, Camino San Roque, 89 (Artxanda)
- Yandiola, Azkuna Zentroa (Alhóndiga Bilbao)
Other
Further info (links)
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