The 43 columns
Starck's forest — no two alike.
Tereajuria — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fred Romero from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0 · Fred Romero from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0 · Fred Romero from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0
The Alhóndiga was the city's wine warehouse (1909) — until Philippe Starck turned it into an indoor culture city: beneath the historic shell one colossal hall stands on 43 columns, no two alike — marble, ceramic, wood and bronze in every style that crossed Starck's mind — the column forest becoming Bilbao's interior icon. Above: library, media centre, cinemas and galleries — and strangest of all, a public pool whose glass floor is the atrium's ceiling, so you look up from below at swimmers floating in the building's sky. It anchors the lively Indautxu quarter of cafés — and entering and wandering is entirely free: half an hour of architectural astonishment en route, its under-column café among the city's finest sits.
Starck's forest — no two alike.
A glass bottom suspending swimmers overhead.
Arriquíbar Plaza 4, 48008 Bilbao
Vista Alegre Bullring and MuseumA bullring in Bilbao originating in the nineteenth century, seating around fourt7 minutes walk4.0
Museum of Reproductions, BilbaoA museum of plaster casts of famous classical sculpture, in a former church in B10 minutes walk4.3
Zubizuri BridgeZubizuri — "white bridge" in Basque — is Calatrava's leaning arch over the Nervi12 minutes walk4.3
Guggenheim Museum BilbaoThe museum of modern and contemporary art that changed the fortunes of an entire13 minutes walk4.6
Itsasmuseum — the Maritime MuseumItsas ("sea" in Basque) stands on the Euskalduna yards that built Spain's ships 13 minutes walk4.4It sits a short walk from everything in the newer centre — dissolving the question: pass through between Guggenheim and Plaza Moyúa, half an hour and a coffee, and you'll remember indoor Bilbao as you remember its titanium.