Las casas de colores

This guide to Las casas de colores in Bilbao tells how bread baron Juan Jose Irala looked at a muddy hillside outside the city and saw an English garden city, hiring architects Federico Ugalde and Enrique Epalza to design blue, green, pink, orange and yellow chalets for his bakery workers starting around 1916. It follows the neighborhood's rapid growth and the school, cooperative shop and clinic Irala added so families barely had to leave. You'll pass the old flour mill nearby, still protected as a historic monument. Look up at the pastel facades along Zuberoa, Kirikino and Baiona as you walk.