History of Euskalduna shipyard - Itsasmuseum

The seagoing and port past of the Nervión-Ibaizabal estuary at the Itsas Sea Museum, nestled in aport setting that recalls the importance shipbuilding had in Bizkaia.

A bit of history

  • On 27 March 1900, one of the largest companies in the shipbuilding industry in Bizkaia was born: Compañía Euskalduna de Construcción y Reparación de Buques. The company set up in an area with a long history of shipbuilding, near Olabeaga. But its start dates back to at least 1868, when the company founded Diques Secos, whose facilities would be purchased at the dawn of the 20th century by the recently created Euskalduna.

  • In its 90 years of existence, Compañía Euskalduna would become one of the largest industrial facilities on the Bilbao estuary, occupying a plot that extending from the Olabeaga docks to near the Deusto bridge. This entire area was the subject of an intense transformation process culminating in the mid-1990s in one of the most transcendent urban planning efforts for a Bilbao searching for a radically different image to the one it offered with its industrial past.

  • Only some parts of the shipbuilding complex remain, including the office building in Sagrado Corazón square, the remains of the Pump House, with its machinery, now part of the Itsas Sea Museum Bilbao, and a riverbank carpentry workshop on the Olabeaga dock, converted into a restaurant. Amidst the vast facilities and technological components on display in the museum, you’ll be able to find the more than 150-year-old docks, caisson, Pump House and the Carola crane, testaments to the strength of the shipbuilding industry here. The docks are home to the museum's collection of ships, among them the Gánguil Portu, the first ship built for Altos Hornos de Vizcaya. The unique Carola crane showcases the area's industrial heritage with the Carolaren Arima light art and sound project.

  • The Carola crane was truly a technological milestone in the 1950s, as it was the first high-power crane built in Spain. The Carola was installed in 1954 at the front of Slip 1, which is no longer standing, to lift, move or turn hull parts or machinery made in the workshops and set them into the ship. At nearly 60 m tall, it was built by Talleres de Erandio and its Lancor electric engine was manufactured by Elorriaga Industrial, on the neighbouring Zorrotzaurre peninsula.

  • The exhibit inside the museum is a journey through maritime history, starting at the Bilbao estuary, as the driving force, and ending in the Bay of Biscay, via commerce, mining, industrial development, steel shipbuilding, sports and leisure, environmental recovery and the Port Centre. The tour ends with the ERAIN project, which is recovering the trade of 20th century riverside carpentry in Bizkaia. It is an exhibit and active workshop to maintain and restore ships and the docks themselves.