La Alhóndiga – Azkuna Zentroa

Azkuna Zentroa offers guided tours of the century-old municipal wine and oil warehouse, redesigned by the genius of Phillippe Starck.

A huge and surprising building in the heart of the city

Azkuna Zentroa is a contemporary art centre with exhibition halls; a meeting place with cinemas, swimming pools, media archive, restaurants; a venue for plays and concerts. And an exponent of urban regeneration. The guided tours tell the story of how it was conceived, the reasons for the 43 columns of the Atrium and what happens in the basement of the building.

The Alhóndiga was inaugurated in 1909, by the architect Ricardo Bastida, with the purpose of storing wines, oils and pickles. It fell victim to a fire in 1919, from which it recovered only to suffer abandonment and ruin in the last third of the 20th century.

It was reopened in 2010, after an ambitious project signed by Philippe Starck, transformed into an enormous 43,000 square metre cultural container that houses eight cinemas, an auditorium, library and mediateka, exhibition hall, gymnasium, swimming pool, shop, restaurants and underground car park.

The Atrium of Cultures, a large covered plaza with 43 columns of different architectural styles and materials supporting three huge brick cubes, is integrated into the city itself.

But Azkuna Zentroa is much more than that. For example, until 6 January it hosts, among other activities, the exhibition ‘Klima’, by Allora & Calzadilla.