Antwerpen-Centraal (Belgium)

On december 30, 2016, The Railway Heritage World traveled to Antwerp, where we could use the main train station, considered by Newsweek Magazine the fourth best station in the world in 2009! (http://europe.newsweek.com/train-stations-grand-journeys-78007)

The History

Before we got there, we went to the Train World Museum, where we could get some historical information like:

This railway made part of the railway golden age; the oldest main part, which SEEMS to be a real cathedral built with turrets, arcades, colonnades, pediments and a dome of 75 metres high, has an ecletic style disigned by the architect Louis de la Ceserie, while the train hall, designed by the engineer Clement Van Bogaert, had a steel structure and a glass roof. This building was inaugurated in 1905.

During the Second World War, the station was so damaged that they considered to demolish it! But, in 1986, they closed it to restore, a work that took 23 years to be finished! Besides the restoration, they upgraded the station. In the beginning it was a terminus station, but after this huge work, other two levels under it were built and the building became a through station, which is linked to a high-speed train network.

The Building and its Memory

Well, the building is still used as a train station, so its use is preserved. Its infrastructure preserves its old features, so the construction itself preserves its importance. It is difficult, due to its magnificence, passe by and don't get intrigued by its history. You can see people taking pictures and walking around all over the station, as if it was a real museum. The technology and the dailylife changed, but people can still see the kind of building that some railways were able to have during their golden age, becoming one of the most stunning train station around the world. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2782099/The-stunning-train-stations-world-revealed.html)

The Railway and the City

The train station has a central location, it is used by many passangers per day. The main building has a zoo in one side, a square in front of it, as a meeting point of people and urban transportation, and the most touristit avenue of the city goes right straight to the building. The railway tracks cross half of the city, and in some moment they are devided in two different branches, so the cars and pedestrians should walk through tunnels. It is interesting to see that there is no bridge to cross the trails, just tunnels. However, as a last remark, there is a sub-station, some meters away of the main one, built by glass.

Final Considerations

As can be seen, the railway heritage can be preserved as the same time as it can be modernised. It can be preserved and still be alive as it was in the first beginnig. Unfortunetely, not all the railway stations had this same fate, some of them, even preserving their use, were totally destroyed to receive new technologies. In Antwerp, the railway memory is preserved as a construction legacy, but to really know about its history, the users should preserve their great curiosity too.