Canfranc Station News

[JabbaPapa]

Some interesting news from El País (in English) about the old Canfranc train station, closed since 1970.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/02/07/inenglish/1517999169_869596.html

The article is fun in itself, dwelling as it does on Nazi gold and so on, but of interest to pilgrims of the Somport route down to the Camino Aragonès proper, it seems that there are some serious restoration and refurbishment plans, including especially :

Now, however, various projects are on the table designed to revive its faded grandeur. One entails the relaunch of international train traffic and has just received a grant of €7.5 million from the EU.

and :

What is now a rubble-filled shell will be turned into hotels, restaurants, homes and even a railway museum. And there are also plans for a refuge for pilgrims on the Way of Saint James, thereby encouraging people to undertake this stretch of the route through Aragon.

The target date for the restoration work is 2021, though I've no idea about a date for the reopening of the railway (though perhaps they might restore at least the Spanish side of it at about the same time ?) -- though one can see from the article that some work has already been done on cleaning up the tracks on the French side of the border.

 

[peregrina2000]

Great article, JabbaPapa. This is fascinating update to what @mspath posted a while back; https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/canfranc-may-rise-again.51029/

We talked with several people in the town, all of whom had childhood memories of playing in the deserted hulk. Lots of intrigue about the gold, too. Fingers crossed that this is a viable project -- the Camino Aragonés could sure use a shot in the arm. Buen camino, Laurie

 

[LTfit]

Interesting news indeed! Laurie, we will just have to do the Aragonés once again!

 

[ISABEL linares]

Some interesting news from El País (in English) about the old Canfranc train station, closed since 1970.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/02/07/inenglish/1517999169_869596.html

The article is fun in itself, dwelling as it does on Nazi gold and so on, but of interest to pilgrims of the Somport route down to the Camino Aragonès proper, it seems that there are some serious restoration and refurbishment plans, including especially :

Now, however, various projects are on the table designed to revive its faded grandeur. One entails the relaunch of international train traffic and has just received a grant of €7.5 million from the EU.

and :

What is now a rubble-filled shell will be turned into hotels, restaurants, homes and even a railway museum. And there are also plans for a refuge for pilgrims on the Way of Saint James, thereby encouraging people to undertake this stretch of the route through Aragon.

The target date for the restoration work is 2021, though I've no idea about a date for the reopening of the railway (though perhaps they might restore at least the Spanish side of it at about the same time ?) -- though one can see from the article that some work has already been done on cleaning up the tracks on the French side of the border.

 

[ISABEL linares]

Yes it is a very good article,and the photos and history of the place too,another place to visit

 

[fransw]

Interesting article! I will walk the Aragones in the second half of May this year. By the way what is the temperature in Aragon at that period?

 

[Stivandrer]

Apart for the obvious benefits for the region, the transport system and the pilgrims, there seems to be a plethora of cloak & dagger material for endless films , when the station again opens and trains start rolling...

 

[amancio]

Interesting article! I will walk the Aragones in the second half of May this year. By the way what is the temperature in Aragon at that period?

It should be just gorgeous! The first bit coming out of Somport might have a tiny bit of snow still, and the rest of the way will be in splendid spring. Great time of the year for this amazing underrated camino, indeed!

 

[fransw]

It should be just gorgeous! The first bit coming out of Somport might have a tiny bit of snow still, and the rest of the way will be in splendid spring. Great time of the year for this amazing underrated camino, indeed![
Thank you for the info.

 

[mspath]

Video info by Iliana Mier in today's BBC re Canfranc Station details what is visible above ground plus what is hidden deep below but visitable.

See

A secret laboratory 800m below the Pyrenees

In Canfranc, the town where Nazis once smuggled 86 tons of stolen gold, scientists conduct experiments on dark matter that could transform the field of physics.

www.bbc.com

 

[peregrina2000]

Work is going to begin on converting the priest’s house in Canfranc (pueblo, not station) to an albergue.

La antigua casa del párroco de Canfranc Pueblo se convertirá en albergue de peregrinos en 2020

El Ayuntamiento ha licitado ya las obras por cerca de 630.000 euros, el 65% de ellos financiados con fondos europeos. Se unirá al nuevo Centro de Acogida que se está construyendo en la estación internacional.<br>

www.heraldo.es

More than 628,000 € will be spent to restore the house as an albergue for 19 pilgrims. The building is a historic structure and will be protected.

Another 400,000 has been allocated for a pilgrims’ reception center.

Looks like some serious money is betting on the camino aragonés.

 

[VNwalking]

On my list...!

 

[NorthernLight]

It’s a lovely camino route.

 

[Vacajoe]

The existing albergue in Confranc Estacion is quite nice, plus there is a group Youth Hostel that is usually accessible. While I am happy to see support for that route, I wish that money was spent in Confranc, Somport, or some other village on the route to create an albergue where none currently exists.

 

[Deleted member 397]

There was a documentary on Aussie tv about this station a few weeks ago. Passed it on one of my caminos years ago..impressive

 

[Don Camillo]

On my list for next year as well along with first half of Camino Ebro up to Zaragoza. I first saw the station on T V "Abandoned Engineering" Being ex Railway (among other things) immediately took note. Then found it is on the Aragones which made that route a definite for Spring 2020.
Don

 

[Vacajoe]

Plan accordingly, as it was not open for tours on the days when we were there last late April.

 

[peregrina2000]

Looks like the tourism component at the station has really grown. It is now open all year, online sales, etc. https://www.canfranc.es/

Now you have two options — a regular visit or a “theaterized” visit, with someone dressed up as Albert Le Ley. I had to search a bit to find out who he was. Turns out this man is referred to as the “Schindler of Canfranc.” https://hubpages.com/education/Canfranc-the-abandoned-railway-station

This station has a lot of history — along with the bravery of those who helped Jews escape, there is a sinister side. Franco got a lot of gold from Hitler, all stolen from the Jews, in exchange for letting Hitler use the rail line to transport materiel from Portugal. When I walked the Aragonés, LT and I had a long chat with a local resident working in a store who told us how she and all the neighborhood kids used to run wild through the abandoned station. About 20 years ago, a French taxi driver (I think) who loved old train stations, entered surreptitiously and found detailed records of all of the transport of gold, iron, and the Nazi-Franco agreement. There were a couple of books for sale that looked like fascinating accounts of the whole story, but of course I resisted the urge to put it in my pack and carry it to Santiago.

I thought it very interesting that the article I linked above described the station as both a “Nazi stronghold” and “center of resistance.” Lots of people must have taken a lot of risk.

 

[lunna]

I have very mixed feelings about this ... It would be a shame to turn this into a Disneyland, but it would also be a shame to let the station lay fallow, so to speak... There's a haunting (and I feel appropriate) feel to the station nowadays, which I fear, once stores/restaurants/hotels/an albergue, may end up turning the place into just any other tourist trap. Alas, such is progress ...

The history of the gold is a bit more insidious than it simply being gold stolen from Jews, to wit, one must ask just how such gold was stolen, and the answer(s) in many cases may be too gruesome to mention here. Also, left silent in this article is the collaborationist role of Switzerland in this story, in addition to Portugal and Spain. The French-Spanish border area in general was a hotbed of activity during the war and even before - Spanish revolutionaries fleeing Franco who crossed into France through the surrounding hills, and then, during the war, maquisards and members of the resistance, dodging Bavarian Nazi and French Collaborationist troops desperately trying to cross into Spain via the surrounding hills and border areas. In addition, while some Jews and anti-Nazis may have successfully made it past Canfranc Station and to safety, on the other hand, as the Vichy and then Nazi government's customs post within the station (on the Spanish side), countless persons, including fleeing Jews and resistants, were, to the everlasting shame of the Spanish government, turned back to France and almost certain death despite having made it "safely" across the Spanish border ...

Very intriguing, too, and worth seeing is, the old military fortification (Fort du Portalet) built into the side of a mountain during the time of Napoleon III, and later converted into a prison (which housed, among others, the French Jewish prime minister, Leon Blum, during the war, and, after the liberation of France, the war criminal, Marshal Petain -inexplicitly still honored in New York City's "Canyon of Heroes" together with the murderous Pierre Laval, just a few kilometers over the border on the French side.

I couldn't resist purchasing three or four of those books in Canfranc Station, and ended up carrying them with me on the Aragones; - fascinating histories and interviews with the locals - well worth the extra trouble...