Sculpture, busts, commemorative plates, streets, documents, poems… recall the men and women of Bilbao who have left their mark on the city in fields as diverse as literature, music, sports… or who have contributed to the development and improvement of the city.
Two names are linked to the origins of Bilbao. The first is of Don Diego López de Haro, the founder of Bilbao and after whom the main street of the city, the Gran Vía, is named and whose sculpture can be seen in the Plaza Circular square. The second is that of his niece, María Díaz de Haro. One of the longest streets in Bilbao’s Ensanche is named after her, the city’s other founder (her uncle, Don Diego, laid claim over her rights). That iconic district is also home to the Alameda Mazarredo, dedicated to Admiral José de Mazarredo Salazar, considered to be the best tactician of the 18th century.
Bilbao remembers two women from that time: María Elvira Barnechea y Morante, the playwright, and María Josefa Patricia Muñoz y Jarabeitia, the benefactor, who left all her worldly goods to the Santa Case de Miserciodria [Almshouse] and Santo Hospital Civil de Bilbao [Holy Civilian Hospital]. A street of the Casco Viejo or Old Town bears her name.
The 19th century has left an artistic legacy and great charitable works. The Arriaga Theatre, the music conservatoire and a monument outside the Fine Arts Museum honour Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, the outstanding composer. His extraordinary talent (he is called the Spanish Mozart) meant that he could play the violin when he was three, composed the “Nada y mucho” octet at just 11 and the “Los esclavos felices”, the two-act opera, when he was 13.
As regards charitable works, Casilda de Iturrízar, known as the Widow Epalza after the death of her husband, deservedly had the largest and most central park in the city named after her. A street and a monument also remember this illustrious lady of Bilbao who used her huge fortune to support hospital, charity and cultural works.
Another woman stands out in her own right for her humanitarian work, Rafaela Ybarra who worked for the welfare of deprived young women. She created the ‘Los ángeles custodios’ [Guardian Angels] institution in 1894. She was beatified in 1984 in recognition of her work.
Yet the ladies of Bilbao in the 19th century were not only involved in charitable work, they also left their mark on the world of arts: Josefa Cruz de Gassier, the soprano, was highly acclaimed for her performances in Spain, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Cuba, María Elvira de Abaitúa Allende Salazar, photographed scenes from everyday life, leaving for posterity a graphic collection that can now be admired at the Basque Museum, and the poet Matilde Raimunda de Orbegozo moved the city’s residents with her religious verses.
Her cousin, Miguel de Unamuno, is one of the great names of the history of BIlbao. Considered to be one of the leading figures of Spanish literature, he was born in the Casco Viejo, where a square and a bust pay tribute to him. The anniversary of the birth of this intellectual belonging to the Generation of 1898 is celebrated on 29 September.
A wide street and a sculpture in the Albia Gardens pay tribute in Bilbao to Sabino Arana, reputed to be the father of Basque nationalism. After having campaigned in the Carlist movement, he founded the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in 1985. He captured his ideology in over 30 poetic works, 14 political and literary books and over 600 articles in the press.
The statue of the first Basque Lehendakari (Basque Premier) in exile in another square in the city centre, Plaza Moyúa. José Antonio Aguirre, a PNV activist, was forced by the Civil Warto flee to France and the United States, where he headed the exiled government.
Towards the end of the century, we showcased an extensive group of female poets of the ilk of Rosa Bustinza y Ocerin, Primitiva Unzueta y Landeta and Angela Figueroa. The latter is part, along with Blas de Otero, Gabriel Celaya and Gabriel Aresti, of the generation of post-war Basque poets.
Blas de Otero, one of the leading representatives of the social poetry of the 1950s, is remembered at various points of the city. There is a stone statute of him and one of his most famous poems, “Pido la paz y la palabra”, in Calle Egaña. A street in the Deusto neighbourhood also pays tribute to his memory.
Gabriel Aresti, one of the most brilliant Basque-language authors of the 20th century and the driving force behind poetry in Basque, is also remembered in Bilbao. A monolith in Doña Casilda Park and an avenue perpetuate the memory of this writer that as a member of the Royal Academy of the Basque Language (Euskaltzaindia) actively defended the creation of a unified common language (Batúa Basque).
