Bilbao

Bilbao is the largest city in Biscay and in the Basque Country, with 347,342 people as of 2024, the eleventh most populous in Spain and the largest in the north. Its metropolitan area holds 1,037,847, making it the most populous in northern Spain, and Greater Bilbao is the fifth-largest urban area in the country. The city turned from heavy industry to culture within a generation, and the riverside is where that is legible. The estuary is the spine, and walking it from the old town outward is the way to read the change. The hills close in on both sides.