Canfranc International Railway was originally a big, magnificent train station in the Spanish Pyrenees, located close the French border in the Spanish town of Canfranc.
The vast royal structure has been abandoned since the 1970s, but the Spanish municipal government in Aragon has proposed some renovation proposals. The structure will be renovated and available to tourists, according to the plans.
The station, which was constructed in 1928 by King Alfonso XIII, boasts over 300 huge windows, delicate plaster detail, and art deco embellishments. The huge station’s main building is nearly 787 feet long.
Allied soldiers and Jews utilized the station to evacuate to Spain during World War II.
Small trips into the station’s labyrinthine underground tubes have recently become in popularity. According to Lonely Planet, around 100,000 guests have arrived in the previous four years. This is also one of the reasons the local administration opted to bring the building back to life.
The Canfranc Station is a historically and culturally significant landmark in Huesca. It has been owned by the Government of Aragon since 2013, with the recovery of these facilities designated as an Asset of Cultural Importance in 2002 as a high priority.
Among the modifications to this train station will be a project to offer scenic and multimedia illumination to the property, which will raise the visibility of this ancient landmark and enhance its historical and aesthetic worth.
For 132.400 Euros, the public corporation Suelo y Vivienda de Aragón (SVA) awarded this project to the organization Audiovisual Productions Photoprism. This firm will be in charge of developing, providing, and installing a lighting and projection system that will breathe new life into Canfranc Station by mixing light effects (on, intensity, colors) that will emphasize the canvases of the façade, windows, towers, volumes, and overall scale.
The restoration of this edifice is viewed as crucial to rejuvenating the Aragon Valley and promoting the area beyond national borders. According to Jess Andreu, Managing Director of SVA, the objective is create “provide aesthetic illumination that will make the Station recognized not only in Aragon, where it is already known, but also across Spain and to tourists from other countries. We aim to take steps to expand Canfranc’s tourism capacity “.
Andreu also underlined the importance of the cooperation of the Endesa Foundation that would give 59.000 euros to the project “a beginning of private engagement in the recovery of this Asset of Cultural Interest”.
As part of this series of recovery efforts for this almost century-old railway station, the SVA will continue its partnership with the Higher School of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property of Aragon to rebuild the north wall of the lobby and restore it to its former look. The northern part of the east and west canvases will be restored.