Antxon Deunaren Eliza

This guide to Antxon Deunaren Eliza in Bilbao traces the ground beneath this riverside church back to a fortress built in 1334 to guard Bilbao's first bridge, torn down within years for a church that outgrew itself twice before the Gothic shell and its Renaissance doorway, carved by Guiot de Beaugrant, took final shape in the 1540s. It follows four centuries of burials under these same pews and the 1983 flood that tore the doors from their hinges and swept away centuries of furnishings. Stand at the carved stone doorway facing Bilbao's oldest bridge as you listen.