Sea

97% of the entire volume of water on the planet is salt water. Water that surrounds us, gives us life and is part of our being. About 70% of our body is water, and nature gives us clues about what is happening around us: clouds, puddles, steam, water, and tides. Everything around us speaks to us if we learn to listen.

We can say that Portugalete is the best gateway to the Ocean that Bizkaia has. And from this vantage point, which is RIALIA, Museum of Industry, we will tell you some things about that ocean. Join us.

Someone will tell you, perhaps, that the Nervión is not a lyrical river but a grey and dirty estuary. Someone will possibly tell you that on its banks; there do not stand trees populated with birds, but rather foundries, blast furnaces, chimneys and cranes. Tell him it's true, but add that the Biscayan estuary is also full of ineffable cramps in which the double emotion of the sentimental and the aesthetic are combined. Tell him that in this irrepressible vocation of our estuary, there is also poetry; Tell him that these chimneys that purpled the night sky with their puffs of fire, and this theory of cranes that punctuated their docks, and these ships that carried salt from the seven seas on their keels and goods of progress in their great metal bellies… Tell him that this Nervión is made up of vocation and destiny and, in short, has profound, poetic, and authentic roots.
It is true that the Bilbao estuary tastes of iron and smoke and mud and industry. But when you know her and deal with her, you realize that she is also filled with tenderness, modesty and magic.

Montes de Hierro. Luis de Castresana