Medea Bar

על המקום הזה Medea Bar

Medea Bar in the Casco Viejo is one of the fixtures of Bilbao's gay scene — a bar that has been serving the local LGBTQ+ community through the Siete Calles (Seven Streets) district long enough to have become a reference point rather than a novelty. The Casco Viejo is the right setting for a bar like Medea: the medieval street plan, the narrow lanes connecting the seven original streets, and the culture of bar-hopping that runs through Basque social life all create an environment in which a good gay bar becomes a genuine neighbourhood institution. The atmosphere at Medea is welcoming and local-feeling in a way that distinguishes it from more tourist-oriented venues: a core of regulars who have been coming for years, a staff that knows their customers, and the specific social warmth of a bar that does not need to perform its identity because it has simply been itself for long enough that identity is not in question. For visitors to Bilbao, Medea is the correct first stop on a Casco Viejo evening: it sets the atmosphere for the rest of the night and provides a natural base from which to explore the surrounding streets.