Casco Viejo - The Seven Streets

The Seven Streets

The name Zazpikaleak or Las Siete Calles (The Seven Streets) come from the oldest part of the neighbourhood which included exactly 7 streets and some much more narrow alleys connecting them, called cantons (kantoi, cantón). The historical seven streets of Bilbao are:

  • Somera, "upper"
  • Artekale, "middle street"
  • Tendería, "shopkeeper's"
  • Belostikale
  • Carnicería Vieja, "old butchery"
  • Barrenkale, "lower street"
  • Barrenkale Barrena, "lower lower street"

The "8th" street is Ronda, which used to be the patrol street outside the walls. Later the town expanded northwards with the construction of the Plaza Berria or Plaza Nueva (new square) and the streets Santa María ("Saint Mary"), Bidebarrieta ("new ways"), Correo ("mail") and Askao. Nowadays the neighbourhood also includes the Ribera ("riverbank") street, the Arenal ("sandy place") Park and Esperanza ("hope") street as well.

The area is served by Casco Viejo station of the Bilbao Metro.

  • Plaza Nueva

  • Casco viejo, Portal de Zamudio

  • The market Mercado de la Ribera

  • La Ribera

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Famous quotes containing the word streets:

    “Three miles long and two streets wide, the town curls around the bay ... a gaudy run with Mediterranean splashes of color, crowded steep-pitched roofs, fishing piers and fishing boats whose stench of mackerel and gasoline is as aphrodisiac to the sensuous nose as the clean bar-whisky smell of a nightclub where call girls congregate.”
    —Norman Mailer (b. 1923)