My two day adventure in Bilbao - Day 1 (afternoon-cont.) - Casco Viejo, the Ribera area - The 29th of March 2014

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As I walked down Belostikale heading in the direction of Ribera I came across a rather interesting street mural, which I had to photograph, once I have always been keen on street Art, particularly if it is appealing. The hair style and attitude of the main character of the mural painting strongly resembled infanta Margarida Teresa as painted on the famous canvas by Juan Bautista del Mazo initially attributed to Diego Velaskéz. The colours were vibrant and the whole ensemble was really worth looking at.

 

At the end of the road  I fell upon the Ribera arcades, which depicted quite a few different style of mural paintings on the upper part, some of which fairly interesting as well.

Just across the road one could see the outstandingly beautiful Mercado de la Ribera, which is said to cover 10,000 square metres making it the largest indoor market in Europe. Built in 1929 it has a wide variety of Art Deco elements, ornamented latice windows and floral decorations. It did stand out, despite being next to San Anton church, whose real dimension one could only get as if seen from the bridge bearing its name.

Archeological digs during its restoration seem to  have dated its existence to before the actual founding of the villa, with the rocky crag on which it sits as having provided protection from the floods. It most probably was the site of a fortress said to have allowed for the defense and control of the river trade.

 (To continued)