You are at the centre of 19th-century Bilbao. Until 1 July 2026 this square was called Plaza Moyúa, after an early 20th-century mayor; that day it officially got back its original name, Plaza Elíptica, Eliptikoa in Basque, after its shape. Many locals will go on saying “Moyúa” for years.

1The Ensanche

After the last Carlist War, in 1876, the engineers Pablo de Alzola and Ernesto de Hoffmeyer and the architect Severino de Achúcarro presented the Ensanche, or expansion, plan: a new, orderly city across the river. Its axis is the Gran Vía de Don Diego López de Haro, fifty metres wide and a kilometre and a half long, named after the town’s founder.

2The iron palace

The Flemish-looking building is the Chávarri Palace, built in 1888 for Víctor Chávarri, one of Biscay’s great steel industrialists, and his brother Benigno, to a design by the Belgian architect Paul Hankar. Since 1943 it has housed the Civil Government, now the central government’s Subdelegation.

3The fosteritos

The glass metro entrances are the work of Norman Foster. The metro opened on 11 November 1995, and locals call these entrances “fosteritos”, after their designer. Notice how they let daylight flood down to the concourse.

4What to look for

  • The pointed roofs and coloured stone of the Chávarri Palace.
  • A fosterito, the metro’s glass shell.
  • The street signs with the square’s new name.

Documented

The Ensanche plan was presented in 1876; the Chávarri Palace dates from 1888 and Norman Foster’s metro opened on 11 November 1995; the square regained the name Elíptica on 1 July 2026.

Sources and credits

Bilbao City Council, renaming of Plaza Elíptica (2026); Metro Bilbao, history and Norman Foster’s architecture (metrobilbao.eus); Basque Government, listing of the Chávarri Palace as a cultural asset (BOPV, 1995).

Photos:

  • Norman Foster’s glass metro entrance in Plaza Elíptica, Bilbao, with the Chávarri Palace behind: PA, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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