Source: Railway Museum

Source: Railway Museum

The old one Delicias station It is one of the most representative examples of Madrid industrial architecture. It was inaugurated in 1880 and became the first and largest open-plan space built in Madrid with a metal structure. Then came the North Station, in 1882, and that of Atocha, in 1892. The French engineer Emile Cachelievre carried out the project, using the most modern construction techniques, which Henri de Dion had been applied with great success in the Gallery of Machines at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878.

All iron armor was prepared in France, in the workshops of the Fives Lille company. The French firm sent one of its engineers to Madrid, Vasaille, to set up the station, which he did with the collaboration of several Spanish engineers.

It was the terminus of the new direct railway line from Madrid to Ciudad Real. It was inaugurated on March 30, 1880 and the event was attended by the king Alfonso XII and the president of the Council of Ministers of Spain, at that time, Cánovas del Castillo.

However, the station would not be used by the construction company, since it was absorbed by the Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante (MZA), also owner of the Atocha facilities. Finally they sold the station to another newly created Company: Madrid-Cáceres-Portugal (MCP).

From that moment Delicias became the terminus station of the line, functioning as a station with an international character, since it linked two European capitals, Madrid and Lisbon, with direct trains and mixed traffic, dedicated to both the transport of goods and transportation. Travellers.

In 1928, the MCP Company was converted into the National Railway Company of Western Spain and in 1941, when the nationalization of the Spanish railways took place, it was definitively integrated into Renfe.

On June 30, 1969, it stopped providing passenger service, although the station remained in service until 1971, the year it closed.

In 1981, the General Directorate of Fine Arts, Archives and Libraries declared the station as a historical-artistic monument. Only three years later, in 1984, the station became the permanent headquarters of the Railroad Museum. From here we thank the Museum for the information and photos provided to complement our entry of 365 days in Madrid.

In Madrid, several railway stations have served as sets for many Spanish and foreign productions. A large number of these filmings have been carried out at the Delicias station, an ideal place to recreate a train station without interfering with passenger traffic. It is not in vain that the station is an obligatory stop in our Madrid de Cine bike routes.

From the Museum they tell us that more than thirty films and television series have been filmed in part at the Delicias station, we list some of the most notable: Life on a Thread (1945), Edgar Neville; Doctor Zhivago (1965), David Lean; Nicolás and Alejandra (1971), Franklin J. Schaffner; Saint Wave of Steel (1971), José Antonio Páramo; Travels with my aunt (1972), Georges Cukor; Panic on the Trans-Siberian Railway (1973), Eugenio Martín; Torment (1974), Pedro Olea; March or Die (1977), Dick Richards; Reds (1981), Warren Beaty; The things of wanting (1989), Jaime Chávarri; Lovers (1991), Vicente Aranda; Love seriously harms health (1996), Manuel Gómez Pereira; One franc, 14 pesetas (2006), Carlos Iglesias; Hot Moon (2010), Vicente Aranda; Paper Birds (2010), Emilio Aragón; Holmes & Watson. Madrid Days (2012), José Luis Garci or the series The Time Between Seams (2012), Ignacio Mercero.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the filming of Doctor Zhivago at the Delicias station, which falls this year, the Railroad Museum and National Film Archive They organize a film series with a selection of six film titles that have been filmed in the historic Madrid terminal. The films can be seen at the Dore Cinema. Here you can see the Doré Cinema program.

A great opportunity to see movies that were filmed at the station.

A abrazo.