Ereaga Hondartza

This guide to Ereaga Beach in Bilbao conjures the vanished Balneario de Ereaga, the belle-epoque bathhouse reached by a palm-lined bridge that once stood almost exactly where you're standing. It follows architect Antonio de Araluce's forty-two changing cabins and saltwater baths through the fashionable decades around 1900, when shipping baron Ramon de la Sota and Bilbao's elite arrived by streetcar to see and be seen. Every summer near the feast of San Ignazio, brass bands and an ensemble called Los Paulinos filled the sand with festivals the whole town still remembers hearing about.