Visit the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. the jewel of the city
When you think of Bilbao, surely the first thing that comes to mind is the Guggenheim Museum, the main point of interest in the city and surely its most international image. It is a contemporary art museum that receives approximately one million visitors a year.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was inaugurated in 1997 next to the Nervión River in an industrial and polluted area that was recovered for the citizen and is today one of the best areas in Bilbao.
Visiting the Guggenheim Museum is a unique experience, both for the exterior and its surroundings and for the exhibitions inside.
Visit the Guggeheim Museum in Bilbao
The building and its surroundings
The building that houses the Guggeheim Museum in Bilbao does not go unnoticed. It is a steel and titanium structure designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry with impossible shapes and that looks like a different building depending on the angle from which you look at it.
The best thing about the building is that, despite its transgressive and modern design, it fits perfectly in the place where it is located without clashing with its surroundings. The Puente de la Salve, which crosses the estuary, forms a perfect tandem with the Guggenheim Museum.
Next to the museum there are several sculptures that have also become a landmark in the city and are almost as famous as the building. They are Puppy, a gigantic dog made of natural flowers that was originally part of a temporary exhibition but ended up staying forever, and Mama, a 9-meter-high spider.
Another sculpture, The Great Tree and the Eye, goes almost unnoticed next to the building but it is also another of the sculptures that are part of the museum’s permanent collection and that we can admire without even entering it.
The works of art of the Guggenheim Museum
Once we have admired the building from all four sides and have known the works of art that surround it as well as the great architectural work that it represents, we can enter its interior and visit it. Most people stick with the mainland, but the content is also worth it and that’s why you should get in there.
The works that are exhibited inside are of contemporary art and you will love them if you are passionate about this type of art, often criticized and little understood.
Among the works of art in the permanent collection we can find creations by Eduardo Chillida, Cristina Iglesias, Antoni Tapies, Antonio Saura or even Yoko Ono. All of them after 1950 and up to the present day.
The temporary exhibitions that the museum usually hosts are also very interesting, with many works coming from the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
You can find more information on the official website of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
