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From revolution to our days.
Train station (Peso da Régua)
Revolution of the transports:
the railway
In Portugal, it is in this moment when the start of the city of Matosinhos
takes place, after the construction of the Leixões port. Furthermore, this meant
the overcoming of a problem that the region of Porto had long borne: the
navigation’s capacity of the Duero river.
At an economic level, in this
contemporary period an important
transformation occurred in the north
of Portugal and in Galicia. The first
revolution was the transports one,
specifically the arrival and diffusion
of the railway, which allowed the
connection between territories that up to
this moment were badly communicated
and turned into periphery areas. The
construction of the Linha Norte in
Portugal was a relatively quick and
efficient process and in less than 25
years (1853-1877) Lisboa and Porto
were connected. Nothing like this
happened in Galicia, where the lack
of state organization that could
coordinate the different efforts led
to the small tracks being built in an
autonomous way. Besides, it was a
slow and discontinuous construction.
Whereas the first section that
communicated Carril and Santiago
de Compostela was inaugurated in
1973, Ourense and Santiago were
not connected by train until 1958.
The train stations were one of the
most singular architectural models
of the 20th century. In Galicia, the
one of A Coruña stands out, which
was inaugurated in 1935 following a
neo-Romanesque style. Nothing to
do with other stations such as the ones
of Santiago or Ourense, which tried
to imitate the monumentality of the
traditional Galician pazos, and
which were built in later decades.
“The train stations were
one of the most singular
architectural models of
the 20th century”
Regarding the railway and the history
of the Galician industrial heritage, it
is essential the visit to one of the former
Galician railway nodes, Monforte de
Lemos. Here it is located the Railway
Museum of Galicia, where different
historic locomotives and remains of the
times of this activity are preserved.
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