Came here while visiting Donostia and we managed to get free entry! It's a really great museum and…read moreit's manageable for spending as little as an hour, unless you want to go through all of the exhibits in substantial detail, which could take quite a bit more time. There's a lot of old Basque history including seafaring history, whaling stuff, and then more modern stuff, too, ranging from Basque artists to, I don't know, secret Basque space lasers. The architectural integration of the old cathedral and cloister is also well done-- leaving the sanctuary, you walk out into this gorgeous, peaceful grassy area and aren't even thinking about the fact that the upstairs is more of a proper museum setting. Definitely worth a visit

Definitely recommend visiting if you are in San Sebastian for more than a couple of days, or if…read moreit's raining and are looking for an indoor activity. It's a great way to learn about Basque history and culture and it includes a church and cloister as part of the building's structure. Bonus: they have a a cafe with tasty pintxos and tapas for the appetite you will work up walking through the museum.

The children's science museum in San Sebastián has quick accessibility from anywhere in the area…read morevia a bus ride. This convenience makes it an easy and convenient option for families looking for a fun and educational activity. It's not just convenient and indoors it's loads of fun , making it a great choice for a rainy day activity. The diverse range of exhibits caters to children of all ages, providing an engaging and interactive experience. The museum is well-priced for the amount of exhibits and activities available. This makes it a cost-effective option for families looking to explore and learn together. There is a small cafe attached but I would not use up caloric space there and save it for one of San Sebastian's culinary palaces of flavor. All exhibits at the museum have explanations in English, French, Spanish, and Basque. This inclusive approach ensures that visitors from various linguistic backgrounds can fully enjoy and understand the educational content on display. It's a great change from what else you have been doing here and definitely worth checking out if you have the time.

The museum itself is fantastic. A great way to spend the day with kids. Highly recommended…read more But if you get hungry, avoid the cafe/restaurant attached to the museum. The service is dismal. It is overpriced and the little boy claiming to be the manager has anger management issues when it comes to dealing with any adults not on his side of the counter. Advice: eat somewhere else.

This is the late 20th century opus of American architect Frank Gehry…read more As an architect, i am always amazed at what some architects can get build. Thus, this always perplexed me. However in situ, it makes total sense. At a human scale its underpinnings line up with the surrounding buildings and the river it sits upon. The curvilinear forms are symbolic of the ships once built on this ground in the early 20th century. As an icon and symbol of basque pride. Interestingly, it also plays homage to Frank Lloyd Wright's opus the original Guggenheim in NYC. The Art? The building is the art. I will let others comment on its success as a gallery. However, it is perhaps the one of the greatest pieces of architecture of our time. Post Modern deconstructionist Master Work

One of the most beautiful museums architecturally! Even if you don't get in the museum the…read morestructure itself and the installations on the outside are worth a visit. We got tickets to enjoy the exhibits within and enjoyed them. Im not a huge artist buff so we mainly walked around leisurely and had a good time. Bilbao in general is a quaint Basque Country city is worth a visit!

I'm sometimes fortunate enough to be traveling with my art historian daughter. She had the Museo…read moreBellas Artes on our itinerary before doing anything else in the city on our most recent visit. For about half of the museum, they had a small amount of art in each room. Mostly it would represent 2 different artists, of different time periods, and one or two works by each. I found it to be a thought provoking experience, wondering what common themes or influences I could find. Sometimes, similarities were obvious, other times not. Being allowed to draw our own conclusions was nice, but I would have also appreciated commentary from their curatorial staff, telling us how and why the pairings were made. The major artists represented were wonderful to see. FYI - admission was free when we visited (June 2023), but we did have to stop at the ticket office and claim our physical proof of entry. They do not allow backpacks (very sensibly), and have free lockers in the basement to check your bags.

I am extremely disappointed. The permanent collection is not on display during renovation and…read morethat's why I came to this city and decided on it over other cities in Spain. THERE IS NO INFORMATION ONLINE THAT THE PERMANENT COLLECTION IS CLOSED. The staff confirmed this and they receive this complaint everyday. THIS IS EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING. The new building is scheduled to reopen in October. For a major museum, this lack of communication is very bad.

We were entertaining a family member from out of town and wanted something to do in Bayonne. Le…read moreMusee Basque et de L'Histoire de Bayonne is well worth your time and a visit. The museum is house in a lovely old building in the heart of Petit Bayonne, that appears to have many original old features like colombage walls, wide plank flooring, and multiple exposed beams. The railings that are on the interior stairwell, while newer than some other building features, are lovely examples of old iron work. Museum guides are available in multiple languages. The rooms in the museum are arranged thematically like religious life, home life, fishing, etc. We also appreciated that there was a room that had artifacts and photos from the Jewish community that lived there in the 1800s. The pieces of furniture and pottery were also lovely. Because it is an old building, the layout is slightly unusual but still intuitive. It would have been preferable to have some more explanatory plaques in some of the rooms. One very nice feature are the lockers in the lobby so you can place coats, bags, etc. Parking is available a couple of blocks away.

It's 6,50€ for entry into this museum, which is chock-full of great artifacts and history of the…read moreregion. Can accommodate a quick 1-2 hour visit, or longer if you have the time/inclination. Well worth your time.

Photos etc coming soon…read more Very interesting small museum Next door to the Archeology Museum Free on Thursday

Jorge Oteiza was a visual artist, who worked from the 1950s until the 2000s in a search for…read moretranscendent secular sacred spaces through abstraction and for-void advocation. His work is well known in Spain (mostly among architects) . He was a convinced Basque nationalist, who used embarrassing pseudo theories to claim the exceptionality and purity of the Basque culture and language, in terms that can be understood as an jntelkectualized and transcendent version of current far right xenofobia. Quite disdainful.. Architecturally, the museum is a renovation and extension of the artist (and his wife Itziar's own studio-house, designed by the brutalist (and later post-modern) Franco-time architect Javier Saenz de Oiza, who collaborated with Oteiza in several projects mostly under the patronage of the Franco-beneficiary Opus Dei affiliated Huarte family. The architecture is definitively not good for the following reasons: 1. It emptied and sanitized the old studio-house, in what is a historical culture destruction now un reparable. That interior contained the laboratorio de tizas, in coexistence with a peasant-like form of domesticity. That was all destroy to create a vulgar space for projections. Unforgivable. 2. It destroys Oteiza and Itziar's garden. Where sculptures lived alongside trees and plants. All that was lost so that the space of the garden would become a paved shaft between the old buildings and the extension. 3. The museum interior is a real mess, a chaotic succession of pretentious tiny rooms, where the work compete with fire extinction devises, huge unnecessary ramp systems and stairs, constant changes of materials, and an overall dramatic light more likely of a tacky jewelry store that a museum. Awful. 4. Urbanization is the epitome of lack of sensitivity: an awful deployment of a black painted proliferation of walls and platforms, where a sweet landscape layer in the past. Such an accumulation of ugliness. THE WORK Despite the far right Basque exceptionality discourse, the collection of sculptures is amazing. Such an exceptional accumulation of beautiful and sensitive masterpieces. Oteiza hardly sold his main works, and therefor most of his work is there as part of this publically-owned collection. The tizas, the maclas, the metaphysical boxes, the glass experiments that have been admired by those who love Oteiza's work, are all there. Also his rather conventional incursions in architecture, half way between Adalberto Libera and a primitive Peter Eisenman. Don't miss it.