Train station architecture: Europe's 10 coolest railway stations

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This was published 4 years ago

Train station architecture: Europe's 10 coolest railway stations

By Brian Johnston
Updated
St Pancras International features Europe's longest champagne bar.

St Pancras International features Europe's longest champagne bar.

ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL, LONDON

The pseudo-Gothic exterior of this majestic Victorian-era masterpiece looks like a mad baron's castle in red brick, presided over by a soaring clock tower. It was once the world's largest enclosed space. A late 20th-century overhaul has wonderfully restored the original and added considerable swankiness, including Europe's longest champagne bar, where you can enjoy your fizz and gaze over the busyness of the terminal. See stpancras.com

PRAHA HLAVNI, PRAGUE

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Prague's main station is often overlooked thanks to surrounding roads and carparks and its contemporary entrance, which takes you to an underground concourse. As a result, many travellers miss the superb Art Nouveau train station that stands above. Ornate ceilings, a cupola studded with statues and coats-of-arms, and lavish decoration from naked nymphs to geometric patterns, create quite the eye candy. Make time to admire. See prague.eu

MILANO CENTRALE, MILAN

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Milan's main train station (Italy's second largest) is vast and has the monumental architecture and heroic statuary to match. The facade is adorned with winged horses, nudes and lions' heads, the palace-like interior with extravagant embellishment. Finished in 1931, its eclectic mix of styles – though mainly Art Deco and Art Nouveau – had one purpose, to glorify Mussolini's Fascist regime, even so you can't help but find it beautiful. See milanocentrale.it

SAO BENTO, PORTO

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The exterior architecture is vaguely Paris circa 1896, but the interior of this modest station is ravishingly Portuguese thanks to the 20,000 blue-and-white azulejos ceramic tiles that cover its walls, providing both architectural embellishment and cool temperatures. They depict romanticised versions of important moments in Portuguese history, such as battles and a royal wedding, as well as bucolic country scenes and the development of railway transport. See visitporto.travel

STRASBOURG-VILLE, STRASBOURG

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Europe has both magnificent historical and contemporary train stations, but this French station combines the two. The 19th-century station is covered in an enormous glass roof that curves to ground level, creating an entrance hall between glass and original stone. From a distance, the structure looks like a giant raindrop or alien cocoon that has engulfed the original. Thumbs up too for the seamless link between trains and trams. See otstrasbourg.fr

MADRID ATOCHA, MADRID

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This late 19th-century train station has a glass-and-steel Victorian arched roof that looks like it belongs to a greenhouse. Atocha took that thought one step further and added a turtle pond and 7000 plants to the concourse when platforms were moved in 1992. Soaring palm trees are a green counterpoint to mellow orange brickwork. No better space in which to wait for a train. See esmadrid.com

GARE DE LYON, PARIS

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This is a train station from the age of optimism in industrial progress: vast in scale, and topped by a clock tower. Statues of women enduring French wardrobe malfunctions stand as symbols of electricity and steam. The Belle Epoque decor is sumptuous, but the most eye-popping corner is Le Train Bleu restaurant (above), an over-the-top hymn to old railway glamour with gold-and-stucco ceilings and landscape murals. See parisinfo.com

KELETI, BUDAPEST

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In a city full of monumental architecture, this train station holds its own with a facade resembling a palace or opera house. Train buffs should note the statues of James Watt and George Stephenson flanking the clock. Keleti was Europe's most advanced train station when opened in 1884, during the golden age of railways and, though worn inside, still impresses with its flamboyant neo-Renaissance style and Hungarian murals. See budapestinfo.hu

LIEGE-GUILLEMANS, LIEGE

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Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, best known for his futuristic buildings in Valencia, designed this daring 2009 Belgian train station, a glass-and-steel counterpoint to Europe's Victorian-era railway palaces. Dappled light cascades from skylights over white concrete in this seemingly delicate, lacy structure of 39 steel arches. With no walls, it's barely a building, and resembles a flying saucer. Only its exhilarating, low-flying roofline provides protection from the elements. See visitezliege.be

HELSINKI CENTRAL, HELSINKI

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Squat, solid and built from reddish granite topped by green roofs, Helsinki's main station looks like it was designed by Finnish trolls rather than by Art Nouveau architect Eliel Saarinen in 1919. The four giant, lantern-carrying statues that flank its entrance are national icons. The graceful interior has the elegant simplicity common to both Art Nouveau and Scandinavian design. Even the Burger King is beautiful. See myhelsinki.fi

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