Gare do Sul (Portugal)

On February 2, 2019, the Railway Heritage World Blog went to an event promoted to celebrate the 160 anniversary of the railway of Barreiro, in Portugal. The celebration was in the railway station of Lavradio, a civil parish in the municipality of Barreiro. This rail infrastructure is known as Gare do Sul.

The event journey started with the inauguration of a railway heritage exhibition; after that, a former railway worker guided us throw it, relating the railway history, some experts of the railway heritage field spoke. To close the event, a documentary was exhibited. Below there is some of this knowledge.

History

This railway station was built to give support to the Sul do Tejo Railway Company, which inaugurated its railway line in February 2, 1859; the king D. Pedro V was present at the event. On 1861, the Sul e Sueste Company started to explore the line as a way of transportation of goods.

Gare do Sul, as many other stations along this line, was remodeled in 1935, when the Sul railway line changed its traction system from steam to electricity. The railway complex of Lacradio was constituted by a station, a guardhouse, a warehouse and public bathrooms, but only the station and the warehouse were preserved and restored in 2012.

The Building

As told before, right beside the currently railway station, the old one and an old warehouse can be seen. These buildings make part of the Espaço L Project, developed by the Movimento Cívico para Salvaguarda do Património Ferroviário no Barreiro, the Associação Barreiro Património Memória e Futuro and the Associação das Colectividades do Concelho do Barreiro since 2012. The aim of this initiative is to preserve this railway complex presenting the whole railway heritage context of Barreiro.

The name of this project draws attention to an important detail of the Portuguese railway stations. As the Évora Railway Station and Estação de São Bento, Lavradio is decorated with tiles, but in a very different way; around its building the tiles are disposed to drawn many “L”. This simple way of tile decoration can be seen in many other railway stations of Portugal.

It is a shame that the other buildings of the old railway complex were destroyed, but the remaining ones are very well preserved. They share space with the new railway station, a huge building also decorated by tiles.

Final Considerations

Lavradio railway complex is partial preserved. The city tries to use it to do not let the railway memory disappear. It is a nice preservation work in many senses because, besides the built heritage, it exhibits the old tools, photos and documents, plus the participation of former railway workers, the living memory of the railway heritage.