Bilbao
Bilbao is on the Nervión River mouth, on the Bay of Biscay.1 It is the center of Basque2 culture: the capital of a short-lived Basque nation in the 20th century. The city proper has nearly 347 thousand residents3 and the metropolitan area over 953 thousand.4 It is on one of the routes pilgrims use to get to Santiago de Compostela; the routes in España (Spain) constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tallest building in the city is the Torre (tower) Iberdrola (541 feet, 2011). The Torre BEC was the tallest building in the metropolitan area--it is in Baralkaldo5--from 2006-2011 (322 feet). The BBVAren Dorrea was the tallest building from 1968 to 2006 (279 feet). The Rascacielos de Bailen was the tallest building from 1946 to 1968 (141 feet). Other notable buildings include the 'Isozaki Atea I and II, Bilbao' (both 273 feet, 2008); the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997), with its two external statues: a flower-made dog (12 meters) and a 10 meter tall spider; the Euskalduna Juaregia, with its metal trees that light up at night; the Delegacion del Gobierno (1894); and la Literaria, the law building of the University of Deusto.6
The Vizcaya Bridge linking Portugalete and Getxo, both in the metropolitan area7, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was an innovative design, using then-state-of-the-art materials, by Alberto de Palacio, a student of Gustave Eiffel.8
External references
Gondola-style Vizcaya Bridge between Portugalete and Getxo, Bilbao Metropolitan Area, Bizkaia (Vizcaya) Province, País Vasco Autonomous Community, España (Spain)
Footnotes
1. The estuary has various names according to the hydrography section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilbao, accessed April 21, 2016.
2. The language is Euskara in Basque. The people were called Vascones by the Romans.
3. 2014 figure from the side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilbao, accessed December 28-30, 2015.
4. Francisco Ruiz column for 2008 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_Spain, accessed December 28-30, 2015.
5. Barakaldo had a 2013 population of nearly 101 thousand (side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barakaldo, accessed April 21, 2016).
6. emporis.com, accessed April 21, 2016.
7. Portugalete had a population in 2013 of nearly 48 thousand (side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugalete, accessed December 28-30, 2015) and Getxo had a population in 2014 of nearly 80 thousand (side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getxo, accessed December 28-30, 2015).
8. UNESCO, World Heritage Sites (Firefly Books, 2010).
