Tourists from all over the world flock to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum, Frank Gehry’s architectural masterpiece.
This is everything you need to know about Bilbao’s modern art museum before you come to The Basque Country.
Getting to the Guggenheim Museum
Address: Avenida Abandoibarra 2
By metro: Head to the ‘Moyua’ stop and exit via ‘Ercilla-Guggenheim’. Once on Plaza Moyua, walk down Alameda Recalde until you get to La Salve Bridge. Guggenheim Museum will be on your left.
By bus: Jump on the 1, 10, 13, 18 or A7 and get off at ‘Museo 1 / Henao’. This drops you off by the Fine Arts Museum. Walk up to Plaza Euskadi (the roundabout), take the second right and Guggenheim is a three-minute walk from here.
Get on the 13, 27, 38 or 48 and stop at ‘Alameda Recalde 11’ after Plaza Moyua or ‘Alameda Recalde 12’ if coming from across La Salve Bridge. After getting off the bus, follow Alameda Recalde until the bridge and the museum will be on your left.
Take the 11 or 71 and stop at ‘La Salve / Igogailua’ or ‘Campo Volantín / La Salve’. From here, go to La Salve and take the lift to cross at the top. You can also get off at ‘Pedro Arrupe’ cross the footbridge in front of Deusto University and follow the riverbank to the Guggenheim.
By tram: Take the ‘Tranvia’ until the Guggenheim stop and follow the river for a couple of minutes until the museum. Walk up the steps to get to the main entrance.
For more information about public transport in Bilbao, check out our comprehensive guide.
Tickets and exhibitions
The Guggenheim is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00, while in the summer months you can visit every day from 10:00 to 20:00. General admission tickets cost €18, students and pensioners’ tickets are €9 and under-18s go free.
A modern and contemporary art museum, the Guggenheim’s prestigious permanent collection showcases renowned works, such as Richard Serra’s ‘The Matter of Time’, Jeff Koons’ ‘Puppy’ and Jenny Holzer’s ‘Installation for Bilbao’.
The upper floors host the museum’s temporary exhibitions, where, throughout the rest of 2025, the Guggenheim will feature pieces by Vito Acconci and Sergio Prego, Refik Anadol, Tarsila do Amaral, Helen Frankhentaler, Barbara Kruger, Sky Hopinka, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Mark Leckey.
Go to the Guggenheim’s official website for more information about tickets and what’s on display.
Visit the museum with a local guide for a more fulfilling experience.
The history of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum
The museum was one of the principal projects in the city council’s plans to regenerate Bilbao’s riverside after a severe economic downturn in the ’80s.
When the Guggenheim Foundation was looking for a European location to add to its global network of museums, the unfancied industrial city of Bilbao made a compelling case to be its home.
Despite the risks involved, and the notable opposition, the Basque Government agreed to cover the cost of construction – which ended up being $89 million – pay a one-time fee of $20 million, subsidise the museum’s annual budget and stump up $50 million for acquisitions.
Canadian architect Frank Gehry was tasked with designing a building that would push the bounds of imaginative architecture. As much a work of art as what’s inside, the shiplike building is ‘made of titanium, limestone, and glass’.
It is rumoured Gehry settled on the location next to the river after seeing Bilbao from above at Mount Artxanda.
Almost three decades later, the Guggenheim continues to be Bilbao’s main attraction, with visitors coming from all over the world to see the building. The museum’s impact on the city and its post-industrial regeneration process is known as ‘the Bilbao effect’.
