Bilbao

Bilbao, a town of Northern Spain, the capital of the Basque province of Vizcaya (Biscay), is situated in a mountain gorge on the Nervion, 8 miles SE. of its mouth at Portugete, and 63 miles N. by E. of Miranda by rail. Bilbao is well built; the principal streets are straight and the houses substantial; but there are no public buildings of any note. Four bridges span the river, which divides the old town from the new. The city is purely commercial. There are docks for building merchant-vessels, and in the vicinity are iron and copper mines. The old fame of Bilbao's iron and steel manufactures is attested by the terms bilbo, 'a rapier,' and bilboes, 'irons'—both common in Elizabethan writers. The canalisation of the river in 1886 has since enabled steamer of 700 to 800 tons register to come up to the town; but the narrow channel and the heavy sea on the bar still render the port equally difficult to enter or leave. Nevertheless, the annual amount of British tonnage entering Bilbao exceeds that of any other foreign port in Europe with the exception of Antwerp. The exports, which include pig-iron, red wines, and wool, are numerous and unimportant, with the exception of iron-ore, on which the prosperity of the port depends. The total exports have a value of over £3,000,000, nine-tenths iron-ore (mainly from Somorrostro, 7 miles to the west), of which the bulk goes to Britain. The chief imports are coal, coke, codfish, timber, petroleum, tin, sugar, coffee, colonial goods, machinery, and metal wares, and have an annual value of £2,500,000—nearly half from Britain. The place, which is purely a trading town, prides itself on being kept exceptionally clean. Pop. (1887) 51,314. Bilbao was founded in the year 1300 by Diego Lopez de Haro under the name of Belvao—i.e. 'the fine fort'—and soon attained great prosperity. In the 15th century it was the seat of the most authoritative commercial tribunal in Spain. It suffered severely in the wars with France, first in 1795, and again in 1808, when 1200 of its inhabitants were slaughtered in cold blood. During the Carlist struggles Bilbao has stood two great sieges, Zumalacarréguy here receiving his death-wound in 1835, whilst in 1874 the place was vainly besieged and heavily bombarded by the forces of Don Carlos for four whole months.