Bilbao: formerly a major port city, then decaying industry, and now back in blossom full of modern architecture in a fascinating setting between the green hills of the Basque country

Bilbao is a surprisingly versatile city, sprawling between and over the surrounding hills and along the Nervión River through the suburbs into the harbour with now merely historic importance. With the airport built by Santiago Calatrava in 2000, the Metro designed by Norman Foster between 1988 and 1995 and Gehry's Guggenheim Museum (1997) to name only the most prominent, Bilbao transformed itself into a showcase for modern architecture in the last twenty years. What makes this city architecturally even more interesting, is the combination of contemporary architecture with a large number of very interesting 50s and 60s residential buildings. Bilbao seems to have come back from the brink of decay with an impulse that came from the focus on Art and Architecture.

http://urbanfields.net/fields/bilbao/
http://basque.unr.edu/07/7.3.1t/7.3.1.3t/7.3.1.3.2.lesson1.htm