Indautxu

This guide to Indautxu in Bilbao starts with a booming decade you would never guess from today's leafy plaza: in 1909, cattle baron Jose Echevarria, the Marques de Villagodio, opened a mudejar-style bullring designed by architect Leonardo Rucabado on this very spot, with thirty-one private boxes for the city's elite. It follows the ring through its last bullfight in 1919 and the marquis's death the following year, and the odd years the empty arena spent rented out for storage. Picture thousands of voices where quiet residential streets now stand.