The Basque Country by Paddy Woodworth

Author:Paddy Woodworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Spain, France, Barcelona, Goose, ETA, Geese, Valencia, Madrid, Royal, Seperatists, Nou Camp, Camp Nou, Messi, Decapitation, Games, Olympics, Spanish, French, Seville, Euro, Europe
ISBN: 9781908493224
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2011
Published: 2012-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

The City of Iron Becomes the City of Titanium

The future mapped out for Bilbao has placed it at the apex of an Atlantic Arc, a kind of cultural and commercial bridge linking Santiago de Compostela in Galicia to Bordeaux in France, whose spans will be highspeed rail links. More ambitiously still, there are those virtual bridges to New York City, and all the other nerve centres of a globalized world.

Bilbao’s apparent success is eyed with some anxiety from very different standpoints. The centralist government in Madrid has paid for some of the infrastructure, including the airport, but sometimes fears that the Basques are going too far in building their own links with the outside world. And the whole enterprise is a dramatic challenge to the radicals of ETA who believe that only their pistols and explosives can make the Basque presence felt effectively in Europe and beyond.

Like many ancient European peoples, the inhabitants of the Basque lands, whether Basques or not, once made their presence felt for posterity by constructing the Stone-Age equivalent of bilbainadas - the enormous megalithic tombs that still dominate some Pyrenean and Cantabrian landscapes. Long before the new Bilbao was dreamed of, Oteiza claimed the dolmens as prototypes of vanguard art. This time around, the Basques have started with an art gallery, built amidst the graveyards of their more recent industrial past. Time will tell whether they have been guilty of hubris, or have become the architects of a most unlikely urban resurrection.

“It is the hour for the city of iron to become the city of titanium,” Zulaika wrote, half mockingly, half in awe, as the opening of the Guggenheim approached. What this shift means is still unfolding, but it is happening right now, and it is very exciting to witness it.

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