Musée Chillida Leku Museums in Hernani

Chillida Leku: a unique museum in the heart of nature

Just 10 minutes from Donostia-San Sebastián and 40 minutes from Biarritz, Chillida Leku is a unique museum where contemporary art merges with nature.

Chillida Leku was conceived by Eduardo Chillida as a meeting place for his work and the landscape. This unique space displays the Basque artist's most comprehensive collection of works, distributed between an open-air sculpture park and the historic Zabalaga farmhouse, a carefully restored traditional 16th-century house.

A space created by Eduardo Chillida and Pilar Belzunce

Eduardo Chillida and his wife, Pilar Belzunce, acquired the property in the 1980s and dedicated the next fifteen years to restoring it with extraordinary sensitivity, in collaboration with the Basque architect Joaquín Montero, who helped them shape their vision for the place.

When they arrived, the building was practically in ruins.
On the outside, the farmhouse maintains its traditional appearance. Its mixed masonry walls alternate between masonry and ashlar, with the ashlars particularly visible around the openings. Furthermore, the building retains two triangular buttresses on both sides of the south facade. The building also retains its timber framing and the original Zabalaga family coat of arms carved on the north facade.

Monumental sculptures in dialogue with nature

In Chillida Leku, the sculptor created a place — leku means “place” in Basque—where future generations could experience his work as he imagined it, in an unparalleled natural and architectural setting.

Chillida Leku's garden, covering 11 hectares, houses more than forty monumental sculptures. Thoughtfully placed, the works engage with nature, but also generate a dialogue among themselves.

On one side, as soon as you enter, you find the open area that in the primitive uses of the hamlet was used as grazing land for the flocks.
In the garden, the sculptures can be touched to feel their different textures, and even experienced from within, as some of them contain spaces within them that visitors can walk through. The works can be walked around and viewed from a variety of perspectives.

In its new phase, Chillida Leku has become even more welcoming, with a garden designed by landscape designer Piet Oudolf welcoming visitors, a shop with a selection of designer products inspired by the work of Eduardo Chillida, and the Lurra Café, where the experience extends around local cuisine. This balance of respect for the original and openness to the present makes Chillida Leku a must-visit for those seeking to connect with the essence of art and the land.

Temporary exhibitions:

Harri Lurra Huts
Until October 12, 2025

The museum is currently hosting the exhibition Harri, Lurra, Huts [Stone, Earth, Void], a profound exploration of Chillida's connection with the essential materials of his work. Leaving iron, a fundamental material in the artist's work, in the background, the exhibition

explores the expressive and metamorphic qualities of stone and earth, materials that in Chillida's work represent the creative force of nature and an expressive medium for all cultures throughout history.
In this sense, the visitor witnesses the evolution of Chillida's sculptural language and the way he interrogates matter. "I talk to the stones when I work with them. I ask them: 'What do you want me to do to you?'" the artist explained.

Pilar Belzunce, intimate portrait.
Until January 31, 2026

In parallel, Chillida Leku celebrates the centenary of Pilar Belzunce's birth with an intimate exhibition that explores her life and her decisive influence on the sculptor's work. Through family portraits, sculptures, her own paintings, and personal objects, Pilar Belzunce. Intimate Portrait reveals a woman ahead of her time, steadfast and generous, who not only supported Chillida in his most daring decisions but also left her own mark as a creator, mother of eight children, and driving force behind his artistic and life project.

Schedules and tickets

The museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., except Tuesdays.

The museum has free parking for visitors.

Prices:

• €14 for adults.
• €10 for groups of more than 10 people, students, and seniors over 65.
• €7 for minors under 18, people with disabilities, and the unemployed.
• €0 for children under 8 years old.

Tickets with guided tour :

• 20 € for adults.
• €16 for students and seniors over 65.
• €10 for minors under 18, people with disabilities, or those who are unemployed.

How to get there

Public transport

From Donostia-San Sebastián:
Bus BU05
Buses leave every half hour from the city center. The 'Chillida Leku' stop is located at the museum entrance.
For more information and schedules: Lurraldebus BU05