Papo de Política #95: ideologia x pragmatismo

The century-long saga of Europe's unluckiest train station

Once hailed as the "Titanic of the Pyrenees",lottery raffle tickets printing Canfranc International Station in northern Spain was plagued by disaster, derailment and decades of abandonment. Now, almost 100 years after its grand opening, the Beaux-Arts giant has been reborn as a five-star hotel – and could soon welcome international trains again.

Monstrous in scale yet elegant in design, Canfranc International Station's 200m-long, Beaux-Arts facade seems curiously out of place in a mountain village of just 500 residents. But this behemoth tucked high in the Spanish Pyrenees isn't merely incongruous; it's often called Europe's unluckiest train station.

When it opened to great fanfare in 1928, the lavish new transit hub was meant to shuttle hundreds of thousands of passengers between Canfranc and the French city of Pau. But almost from the start, misfortune struck. A fire gutted the building just three years later; the Great Depression slowed repairs; then the Spanish Civil War ground services to a halt. During World War Two, Canfranc became a hotbed of intrigue where Jewish refugees, escaped POWs and downed Allied airmen were smuggled across the border from Nazi-occupied France under the noses of German soldiers and Gestapo agents stationed on the French-controlled side. In 1970, a disastrous train derailment destroyed a key bridge on the French side, severing the line for good. The station was abandoned soon after.

Almost a century after its opening, however, the "Titanic of the Pyrenees" – as it became known – is finally turning its bad luck around. In 2023, after years of renovation, the station reopened as a five-star hotel while plans are afoot to rebuild the lost international rail route through the mountains.

"Welcome to Canfranc Estacion," said receptionist Maria Camara, when I checked in after a long day's travel into the mountains. Like all the staff at the formerly derelict station-turned-luxury hotel, Camara was dressed in a 1920s-inspired uniform designed to evoke a sense of rail nostalgia and seated in a grand, vaulted lobby that was once the ticketing hall. "I hope you enjoyed your journey," she added, as the bellboy strolled over with a tray of Champagne.

My journey wasn't quite as enjoyable as the welcome drink. The Barcelo Group may have transformed Canfranc International Station into an opulent hotel – complete with an indoor swimming pool and spa, an Art Deco bar and a Michelin-starred restaurant serving Aragonese cuisine within a restored wagon – but railway infrastructure remains in a state of disrepair.

Starting early that morning in San Sebastian in Spain's mountainous Basque Country, train cancellations forced me onto a rail replacement bus to Zaragoza, Aragon's regional capital. From there, the domestic train to Canfranc – the only part of the line still in use – was closed for upgrades, so I caught another train to Huesca and a final rail replacement bus into Canfranc, arriving as the sun dipped behind the peaks.

Train Journeys is a BBC Travel series that celebrates the world's most interesting train rides and inspires readers to travel overland.

It would shock the original engineers and architects to find passengers arriving at their opulent station by bus. But despite the long trip, I was awed by its mammoth size and grandeur. Surrounded by snow-capped Pyrenean peaks at an altitude of 1,036m, this was the second-largest station in Europe (after Leipzig Hauptbahnhof) when it was opened by the King of Spain and the President of France in July 1928.

"It was a magnificent building," said Francisco Polo Muriel, a rail historian at the Museo del Ferrocarril (Railway Museum) in Madrid. "It featured a splendid international hotel, a quarantine facility, and with its palatial size and design, it was equipped with housing, administrative offices, customs and commercial facilities, and railway operations spaces for both countries."

On the lobby's northern wall, I saw a French coat of arms. One end of the station (where my room happened to be located) was once sovereign French territory where French customs and immigration officers undertook border formalities for travellers entering or leaving France, while Spanish officials worked the opposite end.

How to get there: From Spain, two regional trains depart daily from Zaragoza to Canfranc (approx 3.5 hours). Book tickets via RENFE. From France, take a regional train from Pau to Bedous, then change to a bus for the final leg to Canfranc. Book train tickets via SNCF Connect.

Best time to visit: Canfranc is a year-round destination. Visit in winter for snow-capped mountain scenery and ski sports. Summer is the best time for hiking. The spring and autumn shoulder seasons are best for quieter stays and lower prices.

What to do: Dine at the Michelin-starred Canfranc Express (if your budget allows). The hotel organises guided tours of the station and hikes to nearby bunkers for guests. The Camino de Santiago passes through Canfranc, while nearby ski resorts – including Candanchu and Astun – are perfect for winter sports.

The lobby is as much a museum as a hotel reception, and a large group of schoolchildren listened intently as their teacher explained the station's turbulent history. "It's a very historic hotel," said Camara from behind the elegant wooden reception – styled like a ticketing counter – when I asked if the lobby was always this busy. "So, all the local kids visit on school trips."

The next morning, with rain clouds massed above mountain peaks, I set off to explore the station's surroundings. It's located on an expansive man-made embankment above the River Aragon (the river was diverted to make way for its construction), and vast forests were planted on mountain slopes to defend against avalanches. Much of the surrounding infrastructure, including grain silos, warehouses and engine sheds, lay ghostly derelict. When the grand station closed, the irregular domestic service from Zaragoza terminated instead at freight platforms amongst the warehouses opposite. This terminus was being upgraded when I visited (which is why I'd arrived on a rail replacement bus) into a modern yet humble terminal, paling in size to the international station-turned-hotel opposite.

Canfranc village sits on the other side of the River Aragon, where chalets, souvenir shops and restaurants advertised products and services in both French and Spanish. It caters to rail enthusiasts, skiers, hikers and pilgrims (often tackling the Camino de Santiago), many of whom will have passed through the Somport, the mountain pass to France, as humans have for millennia.

"For centuries, this mountain pass has been one of the main routes into the Iberian Peninsula through the central Pyrenees," said Polo Muriel. "The natural conditions of the pass and its historical role as a cross-border route led to its selection for the construction of the international railway line between Spain and France," he added, explaining how this became the third rail route between the two countries, the others located in lower coastal terrain on either side of the Pyrenees.

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Plans were first drawn up for a railway through the Somport in the mid-19th Century, according to Polo Muriel, and construction began in 1882. French and Spanish engineers spent almost two decades carving the Somport Railway Tunnel through the mountain itself. When the French bridge collapse of 1970 ended through services, Canfranc's decline seemed inevitable. "From 1928 to the present day," said Polo Muriel, "we can say that the line has only seen 26 years of full operations." Fires, wars and economic downturns had all taken their toll.

But Canfranc's curious story didn't end there. The station's rebirth, said the hotel's assistant general manager Pilar Alfaro, was about preserving a national treasure. "The station has long captivated imaginations with its grandeur and mystery," she said. "By restoring it, we aimed to breathe new life into its majestic structure while honouring its past."

Pilar noted that the hotel has breathed new life into Canfranc, too, boosting tourism and revitalising the local economy. "Before the renovation, Canfranc was a quiet mountain town with limited infrastructure for high-end tourism," she said. "The project has sparked pride among locals, who see the station not just as a relic, but as a symbol of renewal and opportunity."

More opportunities for renewal are on the horizon. With ever-increasing road traffic through the Pyrenees, the European Union is helping fund the reconstruction of the 310km Zaragoza-Pau line, which could reopen in 2028. Pilar said this would be a game-changer.

"It would reconnect the region with France, fostering cross-border tourism," said Pilar. "For the hotel, it would mean welcoming more international guests arriving by train, adding to the romantic allure of the journey itself."

The Somport Railway Tunnel is currently being rehabilitated, and not long after my March visit, upgrades were completed on the domestic Zaragoza-Canfranc line. This means that rail enthusiasts and history buffs hoping to relive the nostalgic highs of 1920s European train travel no longer need to arrive in Canfranc by rail replacement bus. Instead, they can travel by train through the Pyrenees to spend the night in luxury at what was once Europe's unluckiest train station.

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