Estació del Nord, Valencia

Estació del Nord is Valencia’s principal railway station, a monumental building beside the city’s bullring. Its richly decorated façade belongs to Valencian Art Nouveau, and the station opened in 1917 after the railway company Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España commissioned architect Demetrio Ribes to design it. The building’s scale reflects its original ambition: the completed station covered more than 15,000 square metres, with a vast metal train shed rising 24.5 metres.

You can connect here with Metrovalencia and the urban bus network, while high-speed services use the nearby Valencia-Joaquín Sorolla station instead. Look at the station as a working monument rather than merely a transport entrance. Its history includes a wartime air-raid shelter beneath the building, measuring about 100 metres and reached through three entrances.

In July 2005, Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation gave a one-time concert inside the station; Spanish television filmed and broadcast it. The station became protected cultural heritage in 1987, preserving a place where elaborate architecture and everyday rail travel still meet.