History of Rialia museum of industry

The Rialia Museum of Industry is in a privileged location, a vantage point that allows you to understand our seafaring and industrial history.
After a recent renovation, the museum recovers and shares our industrial and seagoing past and pays homage to the men and women who made that development possible.

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A bit of history

  • The Rialia Museum of Industry is in a privileged spot, at a vantage point that allows you to understand the setting where the milestones of our maritime and industrial history took place on the left bank of the Nervión.

  • The Rialia Museum of Industry in Portugalete was “reinaugurated” after a significant investment to bolster what it has to offer as an industrial tourism resource. The major challenge was structuring and connecting the story and core collection to the industrial tourism options currently available in the area (Vizcaya Bridge, Iron Jetty and Sestao, mainly) to turn Portugalete into a living museum.

  • This museum aims to recover and share our industrial past and pay homage to the men and women who made that development possible. The core of the Rialia Industrial Museum collection is mainly comprised of large pictorial works from the offices of Altos Hornos de Vizcaya and Babcock&Wilcox, with work by Martínez Ortiz de Zarate, Esparza, Luna y Novicio, Badosa, Gómez Gimeno, etc., in addition to other pieces held by the city hall thanks to donations. The major challenge was structuring and connecting the collection's magnificent core of industrial art to innovative museum components so as to exhibit them in an appealing and interactive fashion.

  • Rialia is currently the most inclusive Basque museum as it has 50 beacons or electronic devices that connect via Bluetooth and geolocation to an app installed on visitors’ phones and they provide the information in the panels and paintings.