The train station turned into a luxury hotel

For several months now, the Canfranc train station, on the Spanish-French border, abandoned for decades, has been transformed into a luxury hotel with suites, swimming pools and the like. It took a lot of work and tens of millions of euros to do this conversion. The before and after photos below give an idea of ​​how painstaking and expensive this job was.

But behind all this there is a story unknown to many, from the years when the station functioned as the main rail connection between Spain and France. A story that is directly related to the dark years of the Second World War and that most people want to forget. At this point, it’s really worth looking at why…

Canfranc Station: the forgotten jewel of the Pyrenees

It was also called the “Titanic of the Pyrenees” for its magnificent construction and infrastructure, but was ultimately unable to connect Spain with France by rail.

The Pyrenees mountain range, one of the most beautiful in Europe, forms the natural border between France and Spain. Centuries ago, Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Vandals passed through its mountainous ports, on their way to the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and the looting of the Mediterranean peoples. One of these crossings, in the center of the mountains, gave rise in 1853 to the idea of ​​a rail link between Madrid and Paris. The benefits for the Aragon region would be significant in economic and infrastructural terms if it hosted the main rail connection between Spain and France on its own territory. Despite the strong motivation, the clearing and construction of the station began much later (King Alfonso XII laid the first stone in 1883).

The preparation
The work carried out changed the geophysical map of the area. In the most laborious of them, the 8.6 km long “Somport” tunnel was excavated under the Pyrenees, with the few technical means of the time, and later, with the materials brought from the tunnel, the plateau of the plot that would occupy the station facilities, at an altitude of 1,045 meters above sea level. Then, to prevent avalanches and landslides in the upper reaches, almost three million trees were planted, while a section of the Aragón River had to be diverted from its course. All this created the largest open space in Europe for a train station at the time, 1,200 meters long and 170 meters wide.

Station
The imposing building of the station, built according to the dictates of “art nouveau”, was 241 meters long. It had 365 windows and 155 doors, and was the second largest railway building in Europe, after the Leipzig station. It housed the police station, medical services, post office, the offices of the Bank of Spain, as well as the Spanish and French customs (the police station had dual nationality). The inauguration of the Canfranc station took place with all solemnity on July 18, 1928, in the presence of the King of Spain Alfonso XIII, General Primo de Rivera and the President of the French Republic Gastón Doumerge.

the first disappointments
After the removal of the officials, the first heterodox made their presence felt. The main one arose from the different width of the train tracks, which in France is 1,435 mm. and in Spain 1,668 mm. This meant that upon reaching the French sector, passengers had to change platforms, carrying their luggage, to continue their journey into the Spanish interior on another train. Things were more complicated for the merchandise, which was transferred to a new vehicle to reach its destination. In addition to this limitation, in the first years of its operation the station also faced the consequences of the Great Depression, which arose from the financial crash of 1929. At that time, the question was whether the station was used by 50 passengers. a day, on average. As the culmination of these evils, exactly eight years after the official inauguration, the Spanish Civil War was declared. In August 1936, one month after the start of hostilities, General Franco ordered the station closed. The country’s later dictator feared that if he remained open, he would help the legitimately elected democratic government be reinforced with weapons from abroad, perhaps even men. So, just in case, he blocked the way.

The Nazis in the foreground
When the French surrendered to the Nazis in 1940, the train station was reopened, according to the wishes of the conquerors. Thus, a trainload of uniformed Wehrmacht and SS arrived in Canfranc, along with a Gestapo echelon. They all took up residence on the floors occupied by the losers’ staff. The French were not happy with the coexistence, but they put up with the Germans, since they could not do otherwise. With the Spanish, things were different, since the Franco regime was allied with Nazism and had received military aid from it during the three years of civil war. However, the country was neutral in the Second World War and this required other balances. Although Madrid had warned their people from Canfranc to “be careful”, their symbiosis was problematic until the end. There were many occasions when weapons almost came out of their holsters, especially when the Gestapo attempted surprise checks in the Spanish sector in search of suspicious documents. It was a difficult situation and the worst was avoided thanks to the serenity of those who knew how to handle it.

1940-1944: the dark period
Canfanc was very useful for the Nazis, since through the mountain station in the Pyrenees they could obtain tungsten from neutral Portugal. This mineral was necessary for them, since mixing it with steel improved the penetration of their projectiles, penetrating the armor of their opponents. Initially they paid their collaborators in hard currency, but in 1941 the Central Bank of Portugal discovered a large number of counterfeit banknotes and then the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar demanded all subsequent payments in gold. The German arms industry was almost entirely dependent on supplies via Portugal, so the Nazis complied. There is no full estimate of how many tons of sawdust-covered gold arrived at the station, only partial data. For example, in 1943, 4 tons of silver and 74 tons of gold arrived at the docks, 20 of which remained on the Spanish side, to be delivered as payment to the Portuguese. As for the bars, they came from the looting of the properties of the Jews, as well as the theft of the stocks of the conquered countries. Portugal, as a neutral country, was also the “gateway” for the entry of merchandise and other items from countries outside Europe, circumventing the German trade blockade through Latin American ports. In 1943, 1,200 tons of merchandise were transferred daily from the Spanish platform to the French platform. No one can say for sure who the vendors really were, or what exactly they were selling to the Nazis, apart from food and small luxury furniture.

The human factor
The first to appear in the “neutral” Canfranc were, of course, the spies from the two warring camps. The allies managed to establish an important network on the station and in cooperation with the French Resistance to provoke sabotage in the occupied country, but to extract valuable information. They also offered help to thousands of Jews to escape to America (among them the painters Max Ernst and Marc Chagall, as well as the famous dancer Josephine Baker, who accompanied her French-Jewish husband to her salvation). A leading figure in this chapter was the French customs chief Albert Le Lay, who was a leading member of the Resistance and helped hundreds of refugees. The Gestapo eventually tracked him down, but he managed to escape to Madrid. The circumstances of Canfranc were also taken advantage of by people with humbler motives, such as smugglers and forgers of travel documents, especially useful in those days. From the station they secretly traveled with false passports to Latin American countries and various Nazi war criminals, escaping punishment for what they did.

From mediocrity to dismantlement
In 1948 Cafranc returned to function as an international railway station, without attracting a sufficient number of passengers and freight to make a profit. This situation continued in the following years, where everyone would have even forgotten its existence, if in 1965 it did not become the setting for the famous film “Doctor Zhivago” starring Omar Sharif. In the following years, the station fell into mediocrity, always lagging behind the ever-increasing road transport between the two countries, transiting mainly fruits and vegetables. According to the data, in 1960 the goods imported into the country from the Canfranc station were 20,000 tons. This figure rose to 158,000 in 1967, to drop to 109,573 tons in 1969. By contrast, exports through the station were always negligible: almost 5,500 tons in 1960, 2,691 tons in 1969. But also with travelers, things they were not like that. better. Only 38,370 people crossed the Spanish-French rail border in 1965 and even fewer (21,026) in 1969. With an average of 60 passengers per day, it was understandable that both sides were unhappy, and the French made it clear that the station’s expenses were nine times greater than revenue. And as if all that were not enough, at the end of the 1960s, passengers got off the French train, waiting up to six hours at the station for the Spanish to come and pick them up. It all came to an end on March 27, 1970, when two 1922 locomotives towing nine wagons of corn lost their brakes and derailed on the French side, causing the Estanguet Bridge to collapse. There were no casualties, but that was the end of it. The French withdrew from maintaining and operating the station, as did the Spanish. Fifteen years later, the local Pau-Canfranc line also stopped working, taking with it the last French customs officer.

Aftermath…
Fifty years have passed since then, without the fate of the former international station changing at all. Its façade is now protected by bars, the damage to the roof has been repaired, but the rooms and rolling stock left to their own devices show a picture of neglect. The same is the image of the tunnels and support bridges, which have been covered with grass and flooded. The Government of Aragon and the Canfranc City Council have tried four times to date (1995, 1998, 2001 and 2008) to rebuild the station and resuscitate it, to no avail. Four years ago, another attempt was made, which resulted in promises of favorable development. Over time, as you may already know, the main station building was converted into a luxury hotel.

No visual material remains from the dark days of the Nazi presence in Canfranc, not even the swastika that was then waving on the station roof post. But neither on the side of the winners nor the Spaniards, photos of that time have been leaked. Sounds reasonable, judging by the controversial character of him: who would want to be unexpectedly recognized in one of them and find out his true role?;