Chillida Leku timed entry — more than 40 monumental sculptures in iron, steel and granite across 11 hectares of Basque hillside, around the 16th-century Zabalaga farmhouse Eduardo Chillida spent years restoring. Ten minutes from San Sebastián. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
See ticket optionsFull access — the open-air collection and the Zabalaga farmhouse, timed entry
€27
Students with valid ID and visitors aged 65 and over
€21
“I've been to a lot of sculpture parks and nothing prepares you for the scale here — you walk around a piece of steel the size of a chapel and the grass is still wet on your shoes. We had whole sculptures entirely to ourselves on a Thursday morning.”
“The farmhouse is the surprise. From outside it's a beautiful old Basque caserío; inside Chillida hollowed it into one huge timber-and-stone space that feels like a cathedral. Worth the trip for that room alone.”
“We nearly turned up on a Wednesday — closed. The booking team flagged it before we paid and moved us to Thursday, then the bus from San Sebastián dropped us at the gate. Easiest museum day of our whole Spain trip.”
5-minute audio guide
Hand-written, narrated by a heritage host, sent to every customer the day before their visit. Five minutes that turns a field of steel into a life's work — the goalkeeper who became a sculptor, the farmhouse he hollowed into a cathedral, and the place he built so his work could live outdoors.
Included free with every ticket. No app, no download — plays in any browser.
Chillida Leku — 'Chillida's place' in Basque — is the open-air museum Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002) built for his own work, on 11 hectares of meadow and woodland at Hernani, ten minutes from San Sebastián. In the 1980s the sculptor and his wife Pilar Belzunce bought the Zabalaga farmhouse, a Basque caserío dating from 1594, and spent some fifteen years restoring it and shaping the land around it. The museum opened on 16 September 2000, two years before the artist's death: a place he conceived himself, where more than forty monumental sculptures in Corten steel, iron and granite stand among the trees and grass, weathering in the Atlantic light.
Chillida is the Basque Country's most celebrated modern artist — a former Real Sociedad goalkeeper who abandoned architecture studies in Madrid for sculpture, worked in Paris in the late 1940s, then returned home to forge iron in the Basque tradition. His public works anchor cities across Europe: the Peine del Viento (Comb of the Wind, 1977), three steel claws gripping the rocks where San Sebastián's bay meets the open sea; the Elogio del Horizonte above Gijón; the Berlin sculpture outside the German Federal Chancellery. He won the Wolf Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award and Japan's Praemium Imperiale, and his birth centenary has been marked by the international 'Eduardo Chillida 100 Years' programme.
The visit is unlike any conventional museum. You walk the meadows at your own pace, circling sculptures the size of houses, then step into the cathedral-like timber interior of the Zabalaga farmhouse — gutted and rebuilt by Chillida as a single soaring space — where smaller works in alabaster and steel are shown. The museum closed in 2011 and reopened in April 2019 after a careful renovation, with new planting by the Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf at the entrance. Entry is by timed slot, and the museum is closed every Tuesday and Wednesday — the two facts worth planning around. We secure your slot, you simply arrive and walk in.
Chillida Leku Tickets acts as a facilitator to help international visitors purchase timed-entry tickets for the Chillida Leku museum, which is managed by the Eduardo Chillida – Pilar Belzunce family foundation. We do not resell tickets — we provide a personalised booking and English-language support service, and our concierge service fee is included in the displayed price. For those who prefer to purchase directly, the museum's own ticket site is museochillidaleku.com.
Plan your visit
Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, timed slots, Atlantic weather — how to pick the right day and hour for the sculpture meadows.
The BU05 bus to the museum gate, taxis, driving and parking — every realistic route to Hernani's sculpture meadows.
How to read the meadows, why the farmhouse is the secret masterpiece, and how to give 40+ monumental sculptures the time they deserve.
Timed entry to the whole museum: the 11 hectares of open-air grounds with more than 40 monumental sculptures, and the indoor galleries inside the restored Zabalaga farmhouse. We secure your slot for your chosen day and send your QR ticket by email.
No — the museum is closed every Tuesday and Wednesday, year-round. It is open Thursday to Monday, 10:00–17:00. This catches many visitors out, so plan your San Sebastián itinerary around it; our booking calendar only offers days the museum is actually open.
Yes. Chillida Leku uses timed entry — you book a date and an entry slot, and once inside you can stay as long as you like until closing. We secure the slot for you the moment your booking is confirmed.
Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002) was a sculptor from San Sebastián, widely regarded as Spain's greatest modern sculptor. A former Real Sociedad goalkeeper whose career ended with a knee injury, he abandoned architecture studies for art, worked in Paris in the late 1940s, then returned to the Basque Country to forge monumental works in iron, steel, granite and alabaster. His Comb of the Wind grips the rocks at the end of San Sebastián's bay.
Most visitors spend around two hours — roughly half walking the sculpture meadows and half inside the Zabalaga farmhouse. Art lovers and photographers easily fill a half day; there is no time limit once you are inside.
Take the BU05 bus from central San Sebastián — it runs about every half hour and stops directly at the museum entrance ('Chillida Leku' stop). A taxi takes about 10 minutes. Check the current bus timetable on the day, especially on Sundays.
Children under 8 enter free at the gate — you don't need to buy anything for them, just bring them along. Children 8 and over need a ticket; contact us when booking for a family group and we'll make sure your headcount lines up.
Yes — our reduced ticket covers students with valid ID and visitors aged 65 and over. Bring your student card or photo ID showing your age on the day, as the museum may check at the entrance.
The farmhouse — a Basque caserío dating from 1594 that Chillida and his wife Pilar Belzunce spent some fifteen years restoring — was hollowed by the artist into one soaring timber-and-stone interior. It houses the indoor galleries: smaller sculptures and works in alabaster and steel, plus the museum's temporary exhibitions.
The museum stays open — this is the Atlantic Basque Country and rain is part of the landscape. The grounds are walkable with decent shoes and a rain layer, and many visitors find the steel most dramatic under moving cloud. The farmhouse galleries give you a generous indoor portion whatever the weather.
Thursday and Friday mornings are the quietest; summer weekends are the busiest because entry is timed and the museum is shut Tuesday–Wednesday, compressing demand into five days. For light, the first and last slots of the day are the photographer's choice — low sun on rusted Corten steel against green grass.
Partly. The farmhouse and the main paths are accessible, but the grounds are rolling meadow with grass and gravel surfaces that can be soft after rain. If mobility is a concern, contact us before booking and we will confirm the current arrangements and best route with the museum.
The museum treats tickets as final once issued, so tell us your date carefully. If your plans shift, reply to your confirmation email as early as possible — our concierge team will do everything we can with the museum, though changes can't be guaranteed.
Yes — it's the perfect pairing and easily done in one day. Visit Chillida Leku in the morning, then head to the western end of San Sebastián's bay for the Peine del Viento (Comb of the Wind, 1977), Chillida's three steel forms bolted into the rocks where the bay meets the open sea — free, public, and best at high tide or sunset.
Pets are not allowed in the museum. There is a café on site, and Hernani and San Sebastián are minutes away for a meal before or after — San Sebastián is one of the great food cities of Europe.
An international programme of exhibitions and events marking the centenary of Chillida's birth in 1924, promoted by the Eduardo Chillida – Pilar Belzunce Foundation, with Chillida Leku at its heart. For the museum's current exhibitions and events, check the agenda on museochillidaleku.com.