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Arcos Rojos

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection has a unique, yet complementary, identity from the collections at the other Guggenheim institutions, featuring works by some of the most significant artists of the second half of the 20th century:

The Gold Museum, part of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, preserves and protects this fabulous cultural legacy. The most important museum of its kind anywhere, Museo del Oro showcases the work of ancient peoples who believed gold is the materialization of the life-giving energy from Father Sun.

The Museo del Oro in SantaFé de Bogotá, Colombia, offers a splendid presentation of more than 33,000 items of gold and emeralds and other precious materials crafted in pre-Hispanic times.

The Parque del Buen Retiro is the most popular park in Madrid. It can get crowded during weekends when many Madrilenian families go for a stroll in the park and street musicians, sidewalk painters, fortune tellers, jugglers and street performers animate the crowd.

The Retiro Park was created as a royal park; it belonged to the Real Sitio del Buen Retiro palace. In 1632, the palace was built by King Philips IV as a retreat for the Royal family.

Of the original palace, only two buildings survived, the rest was destroyed during the Napoleonic wars.

Las Fallas is undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain (a country known for unique and crazy festivals). What started as a feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, has evolved into a 5-day, multifaceted celebration of fire.

Las Fallas literally means "the fires" in Valencian. The focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots--huge cardboard, wood and plaster statues--that are placed at over 350 key intersections and parks around the city today. The ninots are extremely lifelike and usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current events (lampooning corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities is particularly popular). They are crafted by neighborhood organizations and take about six months to construct (and often cost upwards of US$75,000). Many ninots are several stories tall and need to be moved into position with cranes.

Starting in the early evening, young men with axes chop holes in the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly the stroke of midnight. Over the years, the local firemen, called "bomberos," have devised unique ways to protect the town's buildings from torching along with the ninots, such as by neatly covering storefronts with fireproof tarps. And each year, one of the ninots is spared from destruction by popular vote and exhibited in the local Museum of the Ninot along with the other favorites from years past.