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Map of Bilbao
An estuary winding between hills and a city that has grown along its curves. The map of Bilbao holds seven medieval streets, a gridded extension and the bank where the shipyards once stood.
What you see on the map
The estuary. The Nervión winds down to the sea and splits the city, with a bridge at every bend: La Salve, Calatrava's Zubizuri, the Arenal bridge. The water is filled with shore lines.
The Casco Viejo. On the right bank, the Seven Streets in parallel that were the medieval town, next to the church of San Antón and the Ribera market, and beside them the enclosed, arcaded Plaza Nueva.
The Ensanche. Across the estuary, the nineteenth-century grid, crossed diagonally by the Gran Vía as far as Plaza Moyúa, an ellipse with its streets in a star.
Abandoibarra. Where shipyards and docks once stood, Gehry's Guggenheim museum, all curves by the water, the Euskalduna palace and Doña Casilda park.
Which scale and paper suit it
1:15,000 on a 30 cm square, as in the picture, covers 4 km: from the Casco Viejo to the Euskalduna, with the whole Ensanche. Buildings can be made out one by one.
1:5,000 on A3 moves in on the Seven Streets or the Guggenheim, with every building on the bank.
In blueprint, as here, the estuary looks like a harbour engineer's plan; in black ink, like an industrial engraving.
Make it yours
Open the example and move the frame: Getxo and Portugalete, at the mouth of the estuary, joined by the Vizcaya transporter bridge, or Mount Artxanda, with its contour lines, deserve a map of their own.
Change all the colours at once with a theme (black ink, sepia, coral, night, blueprint) and download it as PNG. With a free account, also element by element, at 600 dpi, as vector PDF and as SVG.
