The Carola Crane: Bilbao's very own Eiffel Tower
There are people who photograph the Carola Crane and call it Bilbao's Eiffel Tower. And you know what? They are not entirely wrong. The people of Bilbao have always had a talent for making things bigger than they are — but with such warmth and good humour that even their boasting is hard to resist.
A crane with a woman's name
Sitting on the banks of the estuary in the neighbourhood of Olabeaga, facing Zorrozaurre and a short walk from the Euskalduna Palace, the Carola Crane has dominated this corner of Bilbao since 1957. Standing 60 metres tall and weighing 200 tonnes, it was built at the Erandio workshops and used in the construction of vessels at the Euskalduna shipyard. It is the last surviving crane of its kind in Bilbao — and a good thing too, because Bilbao, for all its grandeur, is a small city with no room to spare.
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| Foto I.Pisan http://bit.ly/VO04o8 |
A crane with a woman's name
Sitting on the banks of the estuary in the neighbourhood of Olabeaga, facing Zorrozaurre and a short walk from the Euskalduna Palace, the Carola Crane has dominated this corner of Bilbao since 1957. Standing 60 metres tall and weighing 200 tonnes, it was built at the Erandio workshops and used in the construction of vessels at the Euskalduna shipyard. It is the last surviving crane of its kind in Bilbao — and a good thing too, because Bilbao, for all its grandeur, is a small city with no room to spare.
...a short walk from the Euskalduna Palace, the Carola Crane has dominated this corner of Bilbao since 1957. The best way to take it all in? From the water — this boat tour along the estuary puts the whole skyline in perspective.
Its name, so the old-timers say, comes from a beautiful woman who crossed the estuary every morning on the Misericordia boat on her way to work at the Treasury building. She made such an impression on the shipyard workers that production would grind to a halt as men climbed the crane to call out to her. Legend has it that a Euskalduna manager even offered to pay for her taxi every day, hoping to avoid the distraction that was costing the company dearly.
And so: Carola. Or Karola, as they spell it in Basque — because in Bilbao, things are done their own way.
Its name, so the old-timers say, comes from a beautiful woman who crossed the estuary every morning on the Misericordia boat on her way to work at the Treasury building. She made such an impression on the shipyard workers that production would grind to a halt as men climbed the crane to call out to her. Legend has it that a Euskalduna manager even offered to pay for her taxi every day, hoping to avoid the distraction that was costing the company dearly.
And so: Carola. Or Karola, as they spell it in Basque — because in Bilbao, things are done their own way.
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| The Carola crane Foto Eduardo Vicente Sanz http://bit.ly/1BUf3OK |
From silver grey to vermilion red
For decades the crane was simply a working tool. Then the shipyards closed, Bilbao reinvented itself, and Carola came close to disappearing along with the industrial landscape that had given her life.
In 1994, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia bought the crane from Bilbao City Council for the symbolic price of one peseta. That was the beginning of her restoration — and the moment Carola shed her silver grey and dressed herself in vermilion red. Today she is the emblem of the Bilbao Maritime Museum: an industrial structure transformed into sculpture, into symbol, into an unmistakable part of the city's skyline.
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| The Carola crane . Foto Diego Alcanda http://bit.ly/1qFNLTq |
What the surroundings hide
But Carola does not stand alone. Those who take the time to look around will find two more stories waiting to be told.
The first is told by two cargo containers printed with the words All Iron — a sculpture by two students from the UPV/EHU Faculty of Fine Arts. It commemorates the excitement felt by Bizkaia's miners whenever they struck a high-quality seam of iron. The foreman — an Englishman — would hang a sign reading All Iron on the section, and the lucky workers would earn double pay. That cry of joy eventually made its way into football stadiums, transformed into the ¡Alirón! chant still used today to celebrate Athletic Club's titles. The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language insists the word comes from Arabic. But what do they know.
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| "Tuercebarras" sculpture by Jesús Lizaso. Bilbao. Photo: Restaurante Etxanobe |
The second story belongs to the Tuercebarras — a bronze sculpture by Barakaldo artist Jesús Lizaso that, with a very personal interpretation of human anatomy, shows man conquering iron. In this former industrial corner of the city, the image feels entirely at home.
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| Karola Crane. Photo: Eneko Alvarez Fernández |
Worth the detour
The Maritime Museum, its terrace overlooking the estuary, the quiet streets of Olabeaga with their old Bilbao charm, and Zorrozaurre across the water — the new peninsula that is reshaping the city — make this one of those places visitors discover too late and wish they had found sooner.
Did you come to Bilbao and miss the Carola Crane? There is only one solution. You will have to come back.
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