Maia

The district of Abando is defined by its rigid, nineteenth-century grid of wide boulevards, a sharp contrast to the narrow, winding alleys of the city's older core across the water. This area was once an independent municipality known as an elizate until its annexation by Bilbao in the late nineteenth century. Architects Alzola, Achúcarro, and Hoffmeyer designed this expansion to accommodate the city’s rapid growth, replacing rural fields with the straight, grand thoroughfares that characterize the modern commercial center today.