BILBAO.- The Museum of Sacred Art of Bizkaia has opened The spirit of Bizkaia, an exhibition that looks at how faith once shaped everyday life in the Basque territory. Organized in collaboration with the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, the show brings together art, architecture, and photography to tell a deeply human story of belief, tradition, and social change between 1870 and 1936.

Rather than focusing only on religious objects, the exhibition offers a broader portrait of a society in which religion permeated both public and private life. Through 62 works arranged in seven thematic sections, visitors can see how sacred spaces functioned not only as places of worship but also as meeting points, marketplaces, and sites of celebration. Churches, hermitages, and sanctuaries emerge as powerful landmarks that shaped both the physical and cultural landscape of Bizkaia.

The exhibition opens with the years of the Second Industrial Revolution, a period of intense transformation in which industry expanded rapidly while religion continued to play a central role as a source of cohesion and continuity. Paintings, sculptures, photographs, and architectural materials show how tradition adapted to modernity, ranging from academic religious statuary to innovative funerary sculpture and new approaches to sacred architecture.

Popular religiosity occupies a central place in the exhibition. Images of pilgrimages, rural churches, and local festivities reveal how faith was experienced collectively, often blending devotion with leisure and commerce. Landscape works depicting isolated chapels and prominent temples reflect a spiritual bond with place that attracted both painters and early photographers.

Special attention is given to representations of women. Religious and secular imagery presents women as figures of motherhood, devotion, and renewal, as well as symbols of an idealized Basque rural world. These works reveal how evolving social ideals were projected onto both sacred themes and everyday life.

Curated by Javier Novo González, coordinator of Conservation and Research at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, The spirit of Bizkaia brings together works from both organizing museums, along with loans from public institutions, archives, corporate collections, and private lenders. The exhibition features artists such as Antoni Gaudí, Darío de Regoyos, Eulalia Abaitua, Aurelio Arteta, and David Seymour “Chim,” underscoring the diversity of artistic voices responding to spirituality during this period.

Sponsored by the BBK Banking Foundation, the exhibition continues a collaborative partnership between the two museums that began in 2021, offering visitors a thoughtful and accessible look at how art captured the beliefs, values, and daily rhythms of a society in transition.