bilbON Bizkaia Nº9 (spring 2024)

The future is in our guts
The landscapes, the coast and the mountains. The architectural heritage. The uniqueness of our customs. The gastronomy. We believe that all these are part of our great resources to fascinate our visitors. And they sure are.

But the future of Bilbao and Bizkaia as centres of interest for travellers lies in our own guts. For two reasons. The high-speed train, which is getting closer and closer, will reach the heart of the city underground. We have no idea what the impact will be when Barajas airport becomes the international terminal of Bilbao airport. This is what the Barajas-AVE metro link and the Madrid-Bilbao AVE line mean. The urban redevelopment and improvements around Bilbao’s new metro station will bring a new improvement to the city that will be felt by travellers.

The second reason is the promotion and opening of the mines and caves under Miribilla to visitors. A fascinating world of spaces and colours inherited from the industrial past, hidden beneath Bilbao’s buildings. The viscera of the city will be transformed into a major attraction. Iron has been the city’s great resource for centuries, as Shakespeare said. Now it will be the space left by the iron. It is as if Chillida and Oteiza had already known and prophesied it: the important thing is the empty space. The entrails.