In the last five years, Bilbao has seen a transformation like no other Spanish city. Entire sectors of the industrial city’s long-depressed port have been cleared away to allow construction of a new opera house, convention center and the stunning Guggenheim Museum.
More than the art, the building – designed by Frank Gehry, who is also the architect of Seattle’s Experience Music Project – is the reason so many travelers happily splice Bilbao into their itineraries.
Gehry’s triumph offers a fascinating look at architecture in the third millennium. The limestone and titanium-tile-clad building looks like a huge silvery fish and seems to connect the city with its river. It evokes sails heading out to sea. Gehry keeps returning to his fish motif, reminding visitors that, as a boy, he was inspired by carp, even taking them into the bathtub with him. The building’s scale-like skin is made of titanium, thin as tissue paper and carefully created to give just the desired color and reflective quality.
A great way for visitors to really enjoy the exterior is to take a circular stroll up and down each side of the river. I suggest a walk along the handsome promenade and over the two modern pedestrian bridges.
Once you arrive at the museum, you’re greeted by artist Jeff Koons’ 42-foot-tall West Highland Terrier, guarding the main entrance. Its 60,000 plants and flowers, chosen to blossom in concert, grow through steel mesh. This joyful structure brings viewers back to their childhood … or begs the question, “What constitutes art?” One thing is clear: It answers to “Puppy.”
Inside, just beyond the turnstile, you enter the atrium. This is clearly the heart of the building. The atrium even functions like a heart to pump visitors from various rooms on three levels out and back, always returning to this comforting core to rest, reflect and recharge. Only the floor is straight.
From the atrium, step out onto the riverside terrace. The shallow pool lets the river seem to lick at the foundations of the building. Though avant-garde, the museum fits into its setting: On the right, a grand staircase leads to a big green bridge. A nearby tower was designed to wrap the bridge into the museum’s grand scheme.
Back in the museum, an English brochure explains the architecture, while a monthly bulletin details the art on display. Because this museum is part of the Guggenheim “family” of museums, the collection perpetually rotates among the sister Guggenheim galleries in New York, Venice and Berlin.
The best approach to visiting Bilbao’s Guggenheim is simply to immerse yourself in a modern-art happening, rather than to count on seeing a particular piece or a specific artist’s works. Gehry designed the vast ground floor mainly to show off the often huge modern-art installations. Computer-controlled lighting adjusts for different exhibits. Surfaces in the Guggenheim Bilbao are clean and bare so you can focus on the star of the show … the art.
Rick Steves of Edmonds (425-771-8303, www.ricksteves.com) is the author of 27 European travel guidebooks including “Europe Through the Back Door” (published by Avalon), and host of the PBS-TV series “Rick Steves’ Europe,” airing weeknights at 7 p.m. on Channel 9.
The schedule this week:
Monday: Bulgaria
Tuesday: Venice
Wednesday: Tuscany and Umbria
Thursday: Rome
Staying in Bilbao
If you stay overnight, here are a few options: a fancy splurge across from the Guggenheim, and two cheapies in the Old Town, a bustling, pedestrians-only Old World district with lots of dining options. (For more information on Bilbao, see www.bilbao.net.)
Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao is the place for wealthy modern art fans looking for a handy splurge. It’s right across the street from the Guggenheim, with decor clearly inspired by Gehry’s masterpiece (doubles from $240-$260, 944-253-300, www.granhoteldomine bilbao.com).
For under $80, you can get a good room in the Old Town at either the Hotel Arriaga (944-790-001) or Iturrienea Ostatua, located on a quiet, pedestrian street (944-161-500).
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