San Bernardo Station (Spain)
This time the Railway Heritage World Blog will take you to a nice work in progress. The Spanish Phd Architect Sheila Palomares sent us an interesting railway heritage case, the San Bernardo Station, in Seville, also known as Cádiz Station. She wrote an article to Estoa Magazine called Iron architecture and eclecticism: the original project of the “San Bernardo” Station in Seville-Spain, which you can access and read it entirely.
We hope this collaboration makes you feel curious about this railway heritage future too!
The History
“The Seville railway history started between 1859 and 1860, when two independent lines were built: Seville-Córdoba of Madrid to Zaragoza and Alicante Railway Company (M.Z.A.) and Seville-Jerez of Andaluces (Compañia de ferrocarriles andaluces). These companies built the stations out of the old city walls; they were located in both sides of the city: in one side, the company that connected the city until Córdoba built the station “Plaza de Armas” and, on the other side, the company that connected the city to Jerez built the “São Bernardo” Station. This unusual situation took place only for seventeen years; in 1861 the stations were connected between them, giving birth to the first railway system configuration of Seville (Image 1 of the article), which kept working until the 1970s. The project of a new railway station started to be designed in 1987, when the currently railway system reached its end; the new station was “Santa Justa” (Funes, 1992), inaugurated in 1992, due to the Universal Exhibition (Mayoral, 2001). After that, both stations stopped working (Image 2 of the article).”
According to Sheila’s article, from 1860 until 1886 there was a temporary station. The first permanent station design, signed by the engineer Anatole Maegherman, the Counsellor Lucien Villars and the Plan Depot Boss Antonio Sanz, was based on two pavilions connected to a central one by two other parts of 11,20m each, resulting in a building of 100,70m x 15,90m (Image 5 of the article). The first floor was designed to the railway services, while the second one was used as a residential building to the company workers. The railway tracks were located in the back façade of the building. However, between 1889 and 1901, some new necessities emerged, due to the growth of the number of travelers, thus, in addition to other small modifications, instead of 4 line tracks and a metallic cover of 22,60m, they extended the station project to design 6 line tracks and a cover of 29m. This last project was signed by Agustín S. de Jubera.
The Building
San Bernardo Station, Sheila Palomares, 2015.
The station building was initially connected to the city by a big avenue built in its front façade. As this station do not work since 1991, currently its building is passing through a big renovation. The “San Bernardo” rehabilitation is divided in two steps: first one is the conversion of the building for travelers into a market and the conversion of the existing parking lot into a public space, proposing the construction of an undergrown parking lot; the second step is to make use of the central building to create a sportive center. The two buildings are disconnected to facilitate their management. The dead line to this rehabilitation is dated to May, 2018.
Take a look to the video of the Diario de Sevilla news, “Los vecinos recuperan la estación de Cádiz”, it shows the rehabilitation work in progress!
Final Considerations
The railway station will receive different kinds of use, which currently happens to old railway infrastructures, due to their size and infrastructure. With the passing time, the station got surrounded by the urban grid, but its use got obsolete, becoming a heritage in danger. The market that will be installed in the station building is a historical market called Puerta de la Carne, being its third location since 1929. Thus, the old railway station will have more than one history to tell. The building reuse will increase its value not only as a new urban service, but as a historical element too. How will this building support both histories? Let’s see it next year!
