Casco Viejo
The Casco Viejo is the historical centre of the city. It has the oldest churches and monuments in the city, such as the Gothic Church of San Anton and the Basilica of Begoña; a large concentration of museums (Museo Vasco, Museo Arqueológico, Museo de los Pasos de Semana Santa, etc.); emblematic squares, such as Plaza Nueva with its beautiful neoclassical arcades and Plaza Unamuno; and of course, the best pintxos route in Bilbao!
The heart of the Casco Viejo was surrounded by walls and formed by three parallel streets, to which four perpendicular streets were added a little later, forming what is known today as the Siete Calles district (seven streets). This tangle of small streets, known as "zazpi kaleak" in Basque, consists of Artekale, Somera, Tendería, Belostikale, Carnicería Vieja, Barrenkale and Barrenkale Barrena. Since the 1980s, it has been an entirely pedestrian area, with houses with typical Basque facades lined with numerous pintxos and shops.
On the other side of the Nervión, still in the historic part of Bilbao, the popular San Francisco district - more widely known as Bilbao La Vieja - is today a hotbed of 'hipster' culture. Its dynamism is particularly visible on the Martzana Quay and the streets Arechaga and Dos de Mayo, where most of the trendy restaurants and shops are concentrated.El Ensanche-Abando
Before its absorption by Bilbao in the 19th century, Abando was an anteiglesia (literally "before the church"), that is to say a rural municipality organised around its church. But with the growth of the city and the development of trade linked to the industrial revolution, Bilbao needed to expand. The annexation of the village of Abando and the development of the "primer Ensanche" enabled Bilbao to increase its population at a rapid rate. The "segundo Ensanche", the future district of Indautxu, will only develop at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Gran Vía Don Diego López de Haro runs through the city from one end to the other. At the beginning of this avenue is the Bank of Spain inspired by the German style, with pure and elegant lines, built in 1923. Continuing along the avenue are the Bilbao Stock Exchange, created in 1907, and the Bilbaína Company in 1893, a select private club of entrepreneurs and bankers. Next comes the Albia Gardens, one of the liveliest places in the city. The gardens can be accessed through the Plaza Circular, in the middle of which stands the statue of Don Diego López de Haro, Lord of Vizcaya, who carries in his hand the founding letter of the city of Bilbao.
Travelling along the Gran Vía, from Plaza Moyua to the west, we enter the Sagrado Corazón area. Plaza Moyua, built in 1873, is the epicentre of Bilbao. The economic and commercial power of the city can be felt there as soon as you see the first buildings, such as La Sota, built in 1919 in the Basque regionalist style, La Bastida, the Palacio Chávarri (the current seat of the government of Bizkaia) or the Carlton Hotel, which was the seat of the first Basque government in 1936. On the way to the Euskalduna Bridge stretches the park of Doña Casilda, the green lung of the city, designed in 1920 in the image of the English gardens; it houses the Museum of Fine Arts. At the end of the avenue stands the immense monument of the Sacred Heart. Not far away, the Santa Casa de Misericordia, a charitable institution inaugurated in 1872 by Amadeo de Savoy to house orphaned children, stands on the former grounds of the San Mamés convent, which gave its name to the Bilbao Athletic football stadium, a sanctuary and pride of the citizens.Abandoibarra
Now completely renovated with its beautiful promenade on the banks of the Nervión, this district, located between the Guggenheim and the Euskalduna Palace, was once the centre of the city's port and industrial activity. The Euskalduna Palace, inaugurated in 1999 and built by the architects Federico Soriano and Dolores Palacios, is considered one of the most important contemporary works of art in Bilbao. It symbolizes the last ship built by the former Euskalduna shipyard. This palace is an excellent introduction to avant-garde Bilbao. Close to the San Mamés stadium and after the Euskalduna palace is the Ribera park, whose monuments and statues evoke Bilbao's industrial past. Throughout the 3 km walk, which offers privileged views of the Nervión, the confrontation of international and national artists offers an exciting artistic dialogue, such as the giant spider by the French artist Louise Bourgeois, Begigari IV by Eduardo Chillida and Maia by William Tucker. At the end of the walk is Frank Gehry's Guggenheim, which, since its inauguration in 1997, has become the new symbol of Bilbao, a figurehead of the urban regeneration that the city has undergone and the embodiment of a return to past splendour.
Abandoibarra has become the nerve centre of the new Bilbao, where the most emblematic buildings of the city's overall renovation project are concentrated. The relocation of port and industrial activities ten kilometres downstream has enabled Bilbao to re-appropriate the banks of its ría.
At present, the transformation of industrial wastelands is continuing on the island of Zorrotzaurre, the future "Manhattan bilbaíno" according to the wishes of its promoters. A development plan drawn up by the Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid provides for the construction of 5,500 housing units and several bridges and footbridges over the Nervión. In a few years, the island should be home to business incubators, creative spaces and gardens covering several hectares.Indautxu
After the creation of the city's first "Ensanche" towards the end of the 19th century, a second period of urban expansion, or "segundo Ensanche", took place during the first decades of the 20th century. The Indautxu district, a residential and eminently bourgeois area, was formed, and in the 1920s it experienced a great architectural effervescence. Enriched by the exploitation of iron during the First World War, many Bilbaínos had beautiful palaces and manor houses built in this area.
The Plaza de Indautxu is the heart of this district, a shopping area full of fashion boutiques, traditional shops and pintxos bars to taste local specialities. Next to the square is the church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen with its amazing modern architecture and, as in almost every Spanish city, the Plaza de Toros de Vistalegre with a capacity for 15,000 people, which was rebuilt in 1962 after it was destroyed by fire. The best way to discover the little corners of this neighbourhood is to cross the main streets Iparraguirre, Ercilla and Rodríguez Arias. In Bilbao, a tasting break is almost essential: the Licenciado Poza street is the pintxos bar area par excellence . At weekends, this street is often crowded at aperitif time.