Azkuna Zentroa, Alhóndiga e il Rinnovamento Culturale di Bilbao
The Azkuna Zentroa (formerly the 'Alhóndiga de Bilbao' — the old wine warehouse of the Ensanche, converted by the designer Philippe Starck (b.1949) into the most original cultural centre in the Basque Country, opened 2010) is the most radical example of the cultural renovation programme that transformed Bilbao in the late 20th century — the old warehouse reinvented as the multi-purpose cultural and leisure centre with the 43 unique columns (each column designed in a different style by Starck), the swimming pool with the transparent glass bottom suspended above the atrium, and the cinema, library, and event spaces.
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Azkuna Zentroa — 43 Unique Philippe Starck Columns
Philippe Starck's 2010 renovation of the 1909 Alhóndiga wine warehouse created 43 columns each in a different historical style — Egyptian, Doric, Baroque, Pop Art — supporting a glass-floored swimming pool. The most playful interior in Bilbao.
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Azkuna Zentroa Pool — Swimming Over the Column Hall
The Azkuna Zentroa's rooftop pool has a glass floor through which swimmers can see the column hall below — Bilbao's most theatrical architectural experience, open to the public with pool access included in the cultural center membership.
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Mercado de la Ribera — Europe's Largest Covered Market
The 1929 Art Deco Ribera Market (10,000 sq m over four floors) on the Nervión riverbank is the largest covered food market in Europe — Basque pintxos bars, cheesemongers, fishmongers, and butchers in an Art Deco masterpiece.
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Gran Vía Don Diego López de Haro
The Gran Vía is Bilbao's 19th-century main boulevard — lined with Art Nouveau banking palaces, the Neo-Baroque Albia Gardens, and the Ensanche district's elegant residential blocks housing Bilbao's haute-bourgeoisie.
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Plaza Moyua — Heart of the Ensanche
Plaza Moyua (the 'Elipse') is the Ensanche district's geometric centerpiece — the Hotel Carlton (1926, Republican government HQ during the Civil War), the Correos Building, and the Telefónica Tower surround the oval-shaped fountain.
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Teatro Arriaga — Bilbao's Neo-Baroque Opera House
The Teatro Arriaga (1890, rebuilt 1919) is Bilbao's ornate neo-Baroque opera house on the Arenal — named for local composer Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga (the 'Spanish Mozart') who died at 19 leaving the city's only internationally known classical work.