Just across the street from the Estadio San Mames sits the Santa Casa de Misericordia or Errukiako Etxe Santua.
Once upon a time it was an asylum for orphans and those unfortunate enough to find themselves homeless in the city of Bilbao. Now it is a nursing home for the elderly and it remains a noted landmark in this area of Bilbao. It is distinctive for its domes, arches and pointed turrets.
It was, at least until 2013, not the only building in this area of Bilbao distinctive for its shape and locality.
In 2013 – after 100 years and 3,685 football matches – the original San Mamés also known as ‘La Catedral’ was dismantled.
The baton of Basque football identity was handed over to a new place of worship – the Nuevo San Mamés.
When a stadiums disappears some things never go away only built back better. A museum tends to open in the new space – dedicated to displaying and preserving culturally significant objects.
Sometime the new stadium is simply a museum to what lived before.
Exhibitions of these objects are put on public display. Pennants of old football rivals hang proudly; the playing shirts of yesteryear sit behind glass display cabinets.
The Nuevo San Mames is Athletic Bilbao’s very own Guggenheim. Outside it looks daring and innovative just like the art museum that sits across the city.
With its exterior curves it is less random than the art museum but is in some ways a large, light-filled atrium.
Not so much one with views of Bilbao’s estuary and the surrounding hills but thoughts of them are never far away from those who sit inside on a match night.
The first San Mamés was an essential landmark in the world of football, becoming a legendary ground in the Spanish game.
It earned a nickname that ultimately secured its place in history: The Cathedral.
The stadium had opened in 1913, and 100 years later its was replaced by its present incarnation.
The new ground embraced the challenge of preserving the old traditions of San Mames – its atmosphere, its respect for the opposition, and its passion for showcasing Basque talent. It is now a modern, accessible, comfortable and marketable venue that is suited to modern football whether these be the demands of UEFA competition or international competition.
In the early years of the 20th century, Athletic did not play in what we now consider to be proper grounds, but instead on makeshift grass pitches.
The first of these pitches was near the mouth of an estuary.
Yet the overriding ambition of the club was to have its own ground – a bigger sea if you like though somewhat ironic for a club that has never cast its net far and wide for players.
See the club motto: Con cantera y aficion, no hace falta importacion – our own talents before imports.
If possible, the club needed it to be in the heart of Bilbao. The dream began to materialize when they rented a plot adjacent to the San Mamés retirement home.
The new San Mamés has an instantly recognizable façade that is semi-transparent and permeable.
The shape constitutes an architectural feature that is remarkable for its originality but reinforces the links with the city and its surrounding area.
Like a medieval cathedral that has been polished, its shape and exterior lighting brings new meaning to a football stadium being a city landmark.
It allows 53,000 spectators to breathe in a special football atmosphere.
Located closer to the Nervion than its compact predecessor, the new structure overlooks the River from a high banked point.
It is though not without criticism either now it is real or what it was simply a concept.
Season card prices for loyal socios have gone up in price and for a city with a rich industrial heritage this has been too much for some.
Some simply will never like it compared to what existed before.
Some others have called it football’s version of the Guggenheim museum. A base to showcase to the world what the Basque area of Spain has to offer.
For some fans the previous stadium was a place of sanctuary – a homely, atmospheric church that played such a large part in helping the Basque club reach the 2013 Europa League final – the place where they first got to know what following Athletic was about.
Its uniqueness.
The badge, often hard to differentiate from Atletico, yet known for the San Anton Bridge and cathedral as well as the the Guernica oak.
The crosses of the Basque province either side of the club colors.
The new San Mames still points to sacred ground.
The traditions of the past have not gone away instead that ground is where fans can gather on a current matchday before stepping inside to territory that is not so much new but simply the next installment of what exited before.