Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum has put Bilbao firmly back on the map. Inaugurated in 1997, the futuristic complex sparkles majestically in the sun. Every year, Gehry's masterpiece attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the Basque city.
Locals call their city El Botxo, 'the hole', a nickname that was quite appropriate before its revival. Bilbao used to be a dreary industrial city on the banks of the polluted Nervión river. Architect Frank Gehry got on a plane, climbed a mountain, looked out over Bilbao and saw that things weren’t quite right. He bought a shipload of discounted titanium and constructed one of the world's most famous buildings.
“'Puppy', a huge dog sculpture by king of kitsch Jeff Koons guards the entrance”