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The best museums in the Basque Country: from the Guggenheim to the Basque Museum in Bayonne

Bilbao’s Guggenheim and Fine Arts Museum, San Telmo, Chillida Leku, Balenciaga, Artium, Museum of Navarre, Bayonne’s Basque Museum, Bonnat-Helleu, Villa Arnaga.

By Eztebe4 min

Contemporary art, old masters, haute couture, ethnography, Roman archaeology: the Basque Country is rich in first-rate museums. Here are the must-sees, on both sides of the border.

Biscay

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I, architect Frank O. Gehry’s Guggenheim rises up in Bilbao. Its curves are clad in limestone, glass and titanium panels. The museum has 19 galleries and 10,540 m² of exhibition space, the largest in Spain, and welcomes more than a million visitors a year.

Don’t miss: Jeff Koons’s Puppy, the flower-covered dog at the entrance; Maman, Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider; and Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time, seven monumental sculptures installed in 2005.

Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

Founded in 1908 and opened in 1914, the Museo de Bellas Artes holds more than 10,000 works: El Greco, Goya, Zurbarán, Murillo, Van Dyck, as well as Gauguin, Cassatt, Bacon and the great Basque artists (Zuloaga, Oteiza, Chillida). An extension designed by Norman Foster is under way, with completion announced for 2026.

Gipuzkoa

San Telmo Museum, San Sebastián

Founded in 1902, it is the oldest museum in the Basque Autonomous Community. Housed since 1932 in a former 16th-century Dominican convent at the foot of Mount Urgull, it is devoted to Basque society. Don’t miss the canvases by Josep Maria Sert in the former church. The museum was renovated and extended by the architects Nieto and Sobejano (reopening in 2011). See San Sebastián (Donostia).

Chillida Leku, Hernani

In a 13-hectare park in Hernani, near San Sebastián, the sculptor Eduardo Chillida created his own museum around the Zabalaga farmhouse (1543). Some forty sculptures in steel and granite are set out across the meadow. Opened in 2000 and closed at the end of 2010, the museum reopened in 2019; Time magazine then named it one of the most beautiful places in the world to visit.

Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum, Getaria

In the great couturier’s home town of Getaria, the museum occupies the Aldamar palace and a modern extension. Inaugurated on 7 June 2011 in the presence of Queen Sofía and Hubert de Givenchy, it holds more than 1,200 garments and accessories; only 90 pieces are on display at any one time, to protect the textiles from the light.

Oiasso, Irun’s Roman museum

In Irun, the Oiasso museum displays the remains of the ancient Roman town of Oiasso, and manages several sites: the Santa Elena necropolis, the Irugurutzeta mines and Roman baths. Closed on Mondays.

Álava and Navarre

Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz

Opened on 26 April 2002, Artium houses a collection of around 3,000 works of contemporary art (painting, sculpture, photography, video, installations). Its distinctive feature: three quarters of the building are underground. See Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Museum of Navarre, Pamplona

Created in 1956, the Museo de Navarra occupies the former Hospital of Our Lady of Mercy (16th century), whose 1556 façade is the only example of Renaissance civil architecture in Pamplona. Over six floors, it covers everything from prehistory to the 20th century: the Abauntz stone, possibly the oldest known map in Western Europe, Roman mosaics, the Leyre casket (Islamic art, around the year 1000) and Goya’s portrait of the Marquis of San Adrián. See Pamplona (Iruñea).

The French Basque Country

Basque Museum and History of Bayonne

Opened in 1924 in the Maison Dagourette (late 16th century), on the Quai des Corsaires, it has the largest ethnographic collection devoted to the French Basque Country (Iparralde): around 3,000 objects, in 20 themed rooms over three floors, with texts in French, Basque and Spanish. Its motto: ‘Whoever enters here is at home’.

Bonnat-Helleu Museum, Bayonne

After a long closure and a €22 million renovation, the fine arts museum of Bayonne (Baiona) reopened on 27 November 2025, with twice as much exhibition space. It holds around 7,000 works: Rubens, Van Dyck, El Greco, Goya, Ingres, Delacroix, and more than 3,500 old master drawings. Closed on Tuesdays; open 10:00–18:00 from November to April and 10:00–19:00 from May to October, with late opening on Fridays.

Villa Arnaga, Cambo-les-Bains

Built from 1903 to 1906 for Edmond Rostand, who designed its 40 rooms and its 15 hectares of formal French and English-style gardens, the villa is one of the earliest examples of the neo-Basque style. Today it is the Edmond Rostand Museum (with the Musée de France label). See Cambo-les-Bains (Kanbo).

Further reading

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Ongi etorri — enjoy your visit!

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