Church of Saint Anthony the Great

The Church of San Antón is a Catholic temple located in the Old Town neighbourhood of Bilbao, Spain. It is dedicated to Anthony the Great, known as San Antón in Spanish. It is featured, along with the San Antón Bridge, in the city's coat of arms. The estuary of Bilbao flows next to it.IntroductionThe Gothic style is an artistic style of the 15th and 16th centuries. The great majority of those centuries' buildings have deteriorated with the passing of time and have been reconstructed. Consequently, they do not support the same Gothic essence anymore. Nevertheless, in buildings such as Saint Anthony's church, even though it has been reconstructed, it is possible to observe some Gothic features as the rib vaults and the pointed arches.HistoryThe church was built at the end of the 15th century on a plot where there had been a years a warehouse for three hundred years. It is considered an asset of cultural interest since 17 July 1984, in the category "National Historic-Artistic Monument".In 1300 Diego López de Haro gave the municipal charter. The river and the plot were incorporated to the new village called Bilbao. Some claim that in 1334 Alfonso XI of Castile ordered to build a fortress and wall that were used like a dike against the flood. A wall was discovered in 2002 by an archaeological excavation but the claim is still inconclusive.