Bilbao had been a human settlement well before it was founded in the XIV century. During the Middle Ages, it was a small trade enclave on the route of the Camino de Santiago. In 1300, D. Diego López de Haro granted its foundation charter (Carta Puebla), giving the town jurisdiction over the entire river, and setting the boundaries of what is today the Greater Bilbao. Its commercial impulse was closely linked to the near-by mines, iron foundries, and to the river as a means of communication. This strategic location provided a secure outpost to the seas and the international trading routes.
At the turn of the century, the city started its expansion towards the opposite bank resulting in the formation of the Ensanche area. Its rationalist design, circular plazas and tree-lined avenues, provided the layout for the grand apartment blocks of the new bourgeois class, with the Arenal bridge as its symbol. The Gran Vía became the new artery of the city, and in the 1950’s and 1960´s it continued its growth towards the Indautxu area. In the last few years, Bilbao has become an important cultural reference, both within Spain and internationally. And although the Guggenheim Museum has certainly become its main attraction point, it is by no means the only museum worth a visit. The Museo de Bellas Artes, its many private galleries, and the near-by Oma Forest or Chillida-Leku justify a visit to this city in their own right. Also, the city is interesting from an architectural point of view, with works by some of the most prestigious contemporary architects.
Bizkaia's architect and engineer Alberto de Palacio y Elissague could hardly imagine that the jumble of cables and iron girders, designed for the estuary of River Ibaizabal, would share status with India's Taj Mahal or Athens's Acropolis. Portugalete’s Bizkaia Transporter Bridge is nowadays included in UNESCO's list of World Heritage Site.
Rambling plains, mountain ranges, green forests, prominent cliffs, rich marshes and relaxing beaches. Nature lovers have plenty to discover in the Basque Country. Although the wide range of beautiful and rugged landscape is easily found in the nature reserves, it is also a feature of many other parts of the region. Deep countryside is only a few minutes from the town and the cities. Both active tourism enthusiasts and those only coming along for the views will be in their element.
The singular profile of Gaztelugatxe looks solemn from the coast. The hermitage of San Juan stands out on the top of it, where we will arrive through a 231-step stairs. The hermitage is a square-plan building with polygonal apse; masonry walls strengthened with buttresses; gable roof except in the front part that is more complex; and a portico in the southern part. They do not know when it was built; however, they do know it was subject to a large restoration in 1886.
Representatives of Bizkaia's villages held assemblies under the hundred-year-old tree. These meetings, known as General Assemblies of Bizkaia, took place until 1876. Laws were drawn up beneath its branches, loyalty was sworn, decisions were made and dilemmas faced among the municipalities of the territory.
Bella Easo, Perla del Océano... are just a few of the expressions of admiration for 
Going into the centre of the city, the 
“One day I dreamt of a utopia: finding a space where my sculptures could rest and where people could walk among them as if walking through the woods”. Eduardo Chillida.
To talk about Basque artistic Basque creation means to talk about its most universal artist: Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002). He built the Chillida-Leku Museum so that his dream would come true: to create a space that matches his works. When Chillida said “… here in the Basque Country I feel like I'm where I belong to, like a tree adapted to the land, but with branches that reach out to the rest of the world”, he attempted to express his roots and love for this land and its black light, as he reflected on his works. Thus, Chillida-Leku is a goal he has been longing for and working towards throughout years: to find a space that matches his works.
Located in Hernani, just 15 Kilometre away from Donostia-San Sebastián, Chillida Leku constitutes a sculpture in itself. It is a place in memory, where time and space stop to condense into the iron and the steel, the alabaster and the granite of the works by this Basque genius.
The Chillida-Leku collection comprises 391 sculptures and more than 300 works on paper, including gravitations, engravings and drawings. It is a dynamic collection, since, due to the different arrangements that the sculptor had all around the world, many of the sculptures are moved temporally to other museums to be exhibited, as well as many others visit the exhibition gardens of Chillida Leku.
Restored Zabalaga Farmhouse
In the heart of Chillida-Leku stands the old restored farmhouse, which in turn embraces the heart of the artist’s work. Inside these walls are Chillida’s small and medium works arranged in such as way that visitors can take an impressive and awe inspir-ing journey through half a century of creation. Visitors are enveloped in the unique atmosphere of a farmhouse with nearly 500 years of history, a magical place reincarnated as another one of the sculptor’s works of art.
Corten steel, alabaster, granite and terracotta pieces can be seen in Zabalaga farmhouse. Inside the building, and distributed in different rooms, visitors can see the plaster works made in Paris between 1948 and 1951, as well as iron pieces cast by the artist in Hernani after returning from the French capital. Drawings from this period accompany the sculptures, a vivid expression of the birth of the Chillida we know today. We also find public works projects, some built to monumental scale and others which never made it beyond the project stage. Finally, we can also observe the “gravitations” that Chillida started drawing in 1985 and that reveal the artist’s most intimate and personal side.
Visitors leave the farmhouse with the feeling of having visited something between a sanctuary and a home. As they step back outside, the intense greenery of the estate and the balance between steel and granite reunites them with the landscape. This is when the public seems to feel most at home at the museum; when visitors move, talk and listen to the more than 40 sculptures, which they can touch with their own hands.
Chillida Leku is an enchanted 12- hectare forest (nearly 30 acres) that unites art and nature, a unique magical space in which majestic solemn sculptures mingle with beech trees, oaks and magnolias in green, wide-open welcoming fields.
The Cathedral of Santa María stands majestically up on the hill where the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz originated in 1181. Construction works of the sanctuary began in the 13th century on a defensive wall, which at the same time was privileged witness to the history of the city and full of past testimonies. All of this will be at the disposal of those visiting the cathedral. Entering the structure means a thrilling journey to the past and history of a medieval Old Town of great beauty.
In the Basque Country, eating means much more than simply covering a basic need. Gastronomy forms an important part of the everyday life of the Basques, who discuss, negotiate and get to know each other better over a meal. Excellent traditional cookery, based only on the best ingredients, and the innovating signature cuisine now well known beyond our borders, mean that the visitor can and must choose from a variety as wide as it is delicious. Donostia-San Sebastián has the highest number of Michelin stars per square metre in the planet, although the entire Basque Country offers any amount of opportunities to delight the palate, whether in the big restaurants or in the more modest establishments.
The Basque Country was already internationally famous for its delicious traditional cuisine when a group of new chefs decided to take a number of these dishes and renew them on the basis of their imagination. This movement, which was soon to become known as Basque nouvelle cuisine, was moulded in the mid-70s by a series of young chefs whose point of reference was the French cookery of the same name. Participants in this said culinary revolution were local restaurateurs including Subijana, Irizar, Fonbellida, Castillo, Arguiñano or Juan Mari Arzak, undisputed number one of a style that has caused an upheaval in Basque restaurants, and particularly in Gipuzkoa, with new aromas, textures, combinations and methods of preparation. This said, modern restaurateurs continue to base their dishes on the two secrets of traditional Basque cuisine: high quality ingredients and seasonal products.
The star of local cuisine is fish from either the Basque coast or the far-off fishing-grounds which the local arrantzales (Basque fishermen) have been working for centuries. Hake, bream, bonito and cod, all prepared in different ways, are the main fish used in local recipes, which nevertheless also contemplate the more humble species, such as sardines or anchovies, or others like turbot, monkfish or seabass. A number of basic, light sauces, such as the delicate “green” or pil-pil sauces, extract the essence of the fish without altering either its texture or its flavour. Squid, cooked in its traditional and highly original black ink or sautéed with onion and peppers a lo Pelayo are classic dishes in Basque restaurants, as is the greatly appreciated txangurro (spider crab).
The city of wine in Elciego and Rioja Alavesa: a tribute to wine culture
Rioja Alavesa 
