Editing Bilbao (section)

=== Medieval Bilbao ===
[[File:Don Diego López de Haro V.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|Statue of [[Diego López V de Haro]], founder of the city]]
Ancient walls, which date from around the 11th century, have been discovered below the [[Church of San Antón]].<ref name="settlements"/> Bilbao was one of the first towns founded in the fourteenth century, during a period in which approximately three-quarters of the [[Biscay]]an cities were developed, among them [[Portugalete]] in 1323, [[Ondarroa]] in 1327, [[Lekeitio]] in 1335, and [[Mungia]] and [[Larrabetzu]] in 1376.<ref>Gómez Piñeiro 1979: 96</ref> [[Diego López V de Haro]], then third [[Lordship of Biscay|Lord of Biscay]], founded Bilbao through a [[municipal charter]] dated in [[Valladolid]] on 15 June 1300 and confirmed by King [[Ferdinand IV of Castile]] in [[Burgos]], on 4 January 1301. Diego López established the new town on the right bank of the [[Nervión river]], on the grounds of the ''[[elizate]]'' of [[Begoña]] and granted it the ''[[fuero]]'' of [[Logroño]], a compilation of rights and privileges that would prove fundamental to its later development.<ref>[[#tus04|Tussel Gómez 2004]]: 19</ref>

In 1310 [[María Díaz I de Haro]], niece of Diego López V and Lady of Biscay, grants a new municipal charter to the city, which extends its commercial privileges even further, transforming the city in a mandatory stop for all the trade coming from [[Castile (historical region)|Castile]] towards the sea. This second charter established that the road from [[Orduña-Urduña|Orduña]] to [[Bermeo]], at the time the most important trade route in the lordship, had to traverse the [[San Antón Bridge]] in Bilbao instead of the pass in [[Etxebarri]], as it did until then. This strengthened the position of Bilbao as a trading post, in detriment of Bermeo, city which until then had acted as the main port of the territory.<ref>MONTERO, Manuel. p. 11.</ref> In addition, Bilbao was granted exclusive rights to all trade between the city and [[Las Arenas]]. In 1372, [[John I of Castile]] strengthened even more the city's position by naming Bilbao a [[Free economic zone|free port]] and granting it special privileges concerning the trade of iron.<ref name="Privileges">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bilbao.net/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1272986929362&language=es&pageid=1272986929362&pagename=BilbaoIzan%2FPage%2FBIZ_contenidoFinal |title=Brief History of the City (in Spanish) |access-date=17 August 2018 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923191654/http://www.bilbao.net/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1272986929362&language=es&pageid=1272986929362&pagename=BilbaoIzan%2FPage%2FBIZ_contenidoFinal |url-status=live }}</ref> This caused Bilbao to become an important port, particularly due to its trade with [[Flanders]] and Great Britain.

In 1443 the [[Church of Saint Anthony the Great]] was enshrined, having been built in the place of an old ''[[alcázar]]''. Still today the church is one of the oldest extant buildings of the city. On 5 September 1483, the Queen [[Isabella I of Castile]] traveled to Bilbao to swear fealty to the fueros of [[Lordship of Biscay|Biscay]]. Her husband, [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] had already done so in 1476 in [[Gernika]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Beascoechea Madina|1999|p=199}}</ref>