Two Bilbao museums stand within a fifteen-minute walk of each other, and only one of them is famous. The quieter one is currently housed in a building that was the first in Spain designed to hold contemporary art, and it is showing work today.
Can you visit the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum right now? The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is open: activity moved to its 1970 building, with a programme of its own running to 8 October. The extended museum by Norman Foster and Luis María Uriarte reopens on 5 October, according to the Basque Government, which has published no hours or prices for that stage.
The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is the city’s classical picture gallery, sitting beside Doña Casilda park a short walk from the Guggenheim.
The building you can visit now is a landmark in its own right
The temporary home is not a warehouse. It was designed by Álvaro Líbano and Ricardo Beascoa, is catalogued within the international modern movement, and shows a clear debt to Mies van der Rohe.
Its significance runs past Bilbao. It was, according to the Basque Government, both the museum’s first extension and the first Spanish museum facility designed specifically to hold contemporary art. Its recent refurbishment, part of the same Foster and Uriarte plan, aimed to recover the original architecture while meeting current standards of accessibility and safety.
For a visitor with an interest in twentieth-century architecture, that makes this window unusual: the building is normally a supporting act, and right now it is the whole show.
Three things on display only until October
The current stage runs to 8 October and everything in it belongs to that stage.
- Ataria (bat) — a broad group of works and projects on the ground floor, assembled for this interim programme
- Elogio del hierro III — a Chillida sculpture from 1991, commissioned by BBVA as a tribute to Bilbao and now on deposit, standing in the renovated Eduardo Chillida square outside
- View of Bilbao, from around 1700 — a previously unseen painting recently acquired, which expands the known iconography of the old town
The Chillida sits outdoors in the square, so that one costs nothing and needs no ticket at any hour.
What opens on 5 October
The reopening date was announced according to the Basque Government at an event held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, alongside Prado director Miguel Falomir and the Bilbao museum’s director, Miguel Zugaza.
The programme that launches the new stage is La búsqueda del comienzo, a tribute to the collector Plácido Arango, and it is not a temporary show. Over the next four years it will fold more than a hundred works from the Arango collection into the museum’s route, together with loans from international institutions.
One piece is already in place. Richard Serra’s sculpture Bilbao stands in the new Arriaga Atrium, donated by the Arango family. The route around it will take in work by Eduardo Chillida, Cristina Iglesias, Pablo Palazuelo and Anthony Caro in the new spaces. The BBK banking foundation appears among the collaborators alongside the Prado and the Arango family.
| Stage | Where | What you see | Until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current | 1970 building | Ataria (bat), Chillida sculpture, View of Bilbao | 8 October |
| New | Extended complex | La búsqueda del comienzo, Serra’s Bilbao | Four years for the Arango project |
| Arriaga Atrium | New central space | Richard Serra’s Bilbao | Permanent |
| Eduardo Chillida square | Outdoors, no ticket | Elogio del hierro III | n/a |
What has not been announced
Anyone booking a flight around this reopening should know where the information stops. The date and the exhibition programme are confirmed; the operational detail is not.
Opening hours have not been published. Neither have admission prices, nor whether the museum will keep any free-entry slot in the new stage, nor how ticketing will work from October onwards. The Arriaga Atrium has been announced as freely accessible once the museum reopens, as reported by the newspapers Deia and Naiz following the project presentation, but that is the extent of it.
There is a practical consequence. A visit before October can be planned today; a visit after it cannot be planned in full yet, and the details will need checking close to the date.
Where the museum sits among Bilbao’s collections
Bilbao carries two major art museums within a fifteen-minute walk of each other, and they do not compete. The Guggenheim holds modern and contemporary work in a landmark building; the Fine Arts Museum holds the classical collection, from old masters through to Basque painting.
Anyone with one museum day and a preference for painting over architecture should pick this one. Anyone with two days can walk between them along the river, which is the route the city was rebuilt around.
Pairing it with the Guggenheim
The two museums sit at either end of the same walk. From Doña Casilda park it is a straight line along Abandoibarra to the Guggenheim, following the river, which makes them a natural single outing rather than two separate trips.
For transport, the nearest metro station is Moyua on Lines 1 and 2, while the tram stops at Abandoibarra and Euskalduna on the same axis. The differences between the two are covered in the guide to Bilbao metro lines and the tram, and the wider network in the guide to getting around Bilbao and Bizkaia.
Frequently asked questions about the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum
Is the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum open to visitors right now?
Yes. Public activity moved into the museum’s 1970 building, which has run its own programme through to 8 October, including the Ataria (bat) exhibition on the ground floor. The extended museum reopens separately on 5 October.
What can you see at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum before October?
Three things tied to this stage only: the Ataria (bat) exhibition, Chillida’s Elogio del hierro III standing in the renovated square outside, and a View of Bilbao from around 1700, a previously unseen painting the museum recently acquired.
Is the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum extension designed by Norman Foster?
Yes, with the Basque architect Luis María Uriarte alongside him. The same plan also refurbished the 1970 building by Álvaro Líbano and Ricardo Beascoa, which was the first Spanish museum facility purpose-built for contemporary art.
Are opening hours and ticket prices published for after the reopening?
Not yet. The reopening date of 5 October and the exhibition programme are confirmed by the Basque Government, but hours, admission prices and any free-entry slots for the new stage have not been made public.
A museum changing both its building and its story in the same autumn asks you to pick a date before you pick a ticket.