Lydia Spencer-Elliott
CANFRANC train station, situated in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, is set to reopen next month after being shut for half a century.
A historical landmark, the terminal was where many Jews fled Nazi Germany, including the painters Max Ernst and Marc Chagall.
Originally opened in 1928, the station was used to transport goods – including Swiss gold.
Once called the ‘Titanic of the Mountains’ the terminal boasts a French chateau design and the second-largest high-speed rail network in the world.
The gargantuan building – that’s ten times the size of St. Pancras in London -had its services brought to an abrupt halt in 1970 when a derailment destroyed a bridge on the French side of the line.
But thanks to a collaboration by France, the European Commission and the Aragon government, the railway will be restored to its former glory.
“Canfranc [station] is part of the memory and our identity, of our DNA, of our most intimate feelings as a people,” José Luis Soro, Regional Minister of Mobility for Aragon, told reporters.
