Bilbao Fine Arts Museum / Foster + Partners

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Text description provided by the architects. A grand ceremony marking the reopening of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum was held on Monday, 5 October. Now, a dramatic new addition named the Agravitas hovers like a bridge, spanning 55 metres over the original buildings, leaving them untouched except for restoration. It creates a new enclosed plaza, the social heart of the museum and a vital part of the freely accessible, ground-level public spaces. For the first time in many decades, the original 1940s entrance fronting the city square is reopened. The uppermost level houses a vast new column-free gallery.