Explorer Bilbao

Azkuna Zentroa is a culture and leisure centre in a former municipal wine warehouse, the Alhóndiga, designed by Ricardo Bastida and opened in 1909. Philippe Starck converted it, and it reopened in 2010 with exhibition halls, cinemas, a library and a fitness centre. It took its present name in 2015 in memory of mayor Iñaki Azkuna.

The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, founded in 1908 and opened in 1914, stands in Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park. Its collection runs from the Middle Ages to the present, with Spanish, Basque and European works by El Greco, Goya, Gauguin and Francis Bacon among others. The museum reopened in October 2026 after an expansion.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art on the bank of the Nervión, opened in October 1997 and affiliated with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Frank Gehry designed its curved, titanium-clad building; Louise Bourgeois's giant spider sculpture Maman stands on the riverside walk outside.

Zubizuri, Basque for 'white bridge', is a footbridge over the Nervión designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened in May 1997. Its deck hangs on steel cables from a single inclined white arch, linking the Campo Volantín bank with Uribitarte, a short walk upriver from the Guggenheim Museum.

Itsasmuseum Bilbao is the maritime museum of Bilbao, opened in November 2003 on the site of the former Euskalduna shipyard beside the Euskalduna bridge. Its exhibitions trace the estuary's shipbuilding, port and seafaring history; outside, the old dry docks hold boats and the restored red Carola crane.

Plaza Nueva is an enclosed neoclassical square in Bilbao's Casco Viejo, designed in 1821 and completed in 1851. Arcaded buildings line all four sides, with bars and restaurants under the arches; the main building, once the seat of the Biscay government, now houses Euskaltzaindia, the Basque language academy. A market fills the square on Sundays.

Bilbao Cathedral, dedicated to Saint James, is a Gothic church built between the late 14th and early 16th centuries in the Casco Viejo. Its neo-Gothic west front and spire were completed in 1887 by Severino de Achúcarro. A stop on the northern Camino de Santiago, it became a cathedral in the mid-20th century; the visit includes the cloister.

San Mamés is the football stadium of Athletic Club, opened in September 2013 to replace the club's earlier ground of the same name, which stood beside it from 1913. It seats over 53,000 spectators, and its outer wall is wrapped in white curved panels. The club runs a museum and stadium tours.

The Basilica of Begoña is the sanctuary of Our Lady of Begoña, patroness of Biscay, on a hill above Bilbao's Casco Viejo. Work on the present Gothic church began in the early 16th century, replacing a smaller single-nave church with a timber roof; its nave and two aisles are vaulted, and a tall spired tower rises over the west front.