The environment

Cultural reference in the Basque Country, Bilbao is a city located in the northwest of the historical territory of Bizkaia, in the North of Spain. It is not only the most populated city in the region, but also the economic centre of the Basque Autonomous Region.

Bilbao is singular owing to the fact that it is surrounded by mountains, forests and green areas: Pagasarri, Ganeta, Restaleku, Arnotegi, Artxanda and Santo Domingo. That is why Bilbao is also known as "El Botxo" (the hole).

The river Nervión flows through Bilbao dividing it in two parts. One of them has suffered an incredible transformation in the last decades. The river follows reaches the coast, twelve kilometres away from the city.

Bilbao has been an important industrial city until the creation of new infrastructures (the Bilbao Metro tube and the Calatrava footbridge), the expansion of green areas, the opening of the Guggenheim Museum and the Palacio Euskalduna Convention Centre, which have turned it into a service sector city, giving way to the considerable rise in the tourism sector.