Budget · 3-hour walk · Bilbao
The Casco Viejo in three hours
The riverside market, the church on the city's coat of arms, the Gothic cathedral, the Basque Museum, the pintxo square and the climb to Begoña.
Bilbao began as a merchants' town of seven streets on the right bank of the Nervión, and the Casco Viejo still keeps that tight medieval grid between the river and the hill. This route starts at the market by the water while the stalls are full, threads through the Siete Calles to the cathedral and the Basque Museum, stops for pintxos under the arches of the Plaza Nueva, and ends with the steps up to the basilica of the province's patron saint.
The route, stop by stop
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Mercado de la Ribera
A concrete market hall opened on the riverbank in 1929 to Pedro de Ispizua's design, with some 10,000 square metres of stalls. The ground floor is now a hall of pintxo counters; the fish and meat stalls are busiest on weekday mornings.
30 min here Walk here → -
Iglesia de San Antón
A Gothic church beside the bridge of the same name, the two together drawn on the city's coat of arms. Its main portal dates from 1544.
10 min here Walk here → -
Catedral de Santiago
A Gothic church built between the late 14th and early 16th centuries, a cathedral only since 1949. Its front and tower were rebuilt in neo-Gothic style in the 19th century, and pilgrims on the northern Camino de Santiago pass its door.
20 min here Walk here → -
Euskal Museoa
The Basque Museum, opened in 1921 in the baroque cloister of the Jesuits' old Colegio de San Andrés. The Mikeldi idol, an Iron Age stone animal, stands in the cloister; inside are fishing boats, shepherds' tools and the history of Basque life.
35 min here Walk here → -
Plaza Nueva
A closed neoclassical square of 64 arches, finished in 1851 after decades of delay. The bars under its arcades are some of the city's best known for pintxos.
25 min here Walk here → -
Basílica de Begoña
The sanctuary of the Virgin of Begoña, patron of Bizkaia, built between 1511 and 1621 on the hill above the old town. The Mallona steps climb to it from the Casco Viejo; the tower was rebuilt after the Carlist wars.
20 min here Walk here →
More walks in Bilbao
More in Bilbao
Every walking route in Bilbao, the full Bilbao guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.