Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Contemporary art museum in Abando district, Bilbao, Spain.
The Guggenheim Museum is a contemporary art exhibition space in the Abando district of Bilbao, Spain, standing on the bank of the Nervión River. The curving forms in titanium, glass and limestone spread across several floors connected by open spaces and tall halls.
Construction started in October 1993 after the Basque government selected a riverside site to revive the industrial port area. The building opened four years later and quickly became one of the most visited places in northern Spain.
The museum belongs to a franchise-style partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York, renewed in 2014 for another 20 years, while the building and permanent collection belong to the Basque authorities. Its opening gave rise to the "Guggenheim effect", credited with repositioning Bilbao as a cultural destination.
The museum stands in Abandoibarra beside the Nervión River, next to the La Salve bridge, whose hollow tower rises over the building. From the upper street level the structure looks modest; the full sweep of the titanium forms is best seen from the river side. Nineteen galleries are split between orthogonal stone-clad rooms and irregular titanium-clad ones, so allow time to move between floors.
Large steel sculptures by Richard Serra occupy the main gallery and require plenty of space to display their massive curved panels. Visitors can walk through the narrow passages between the metal walls and the perspective shifts with every step.
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