Train stations don’t technically need to be attractive. As long as there are platforms, railways, and ticket machines, they do the job, but given that they are usually smack-bang in the city centre, and see millions of people passing through every year, it’s no surprise that city planners often like to go the extra mile to make them stand out.
There are hundreds of gorgeous train stations around the world. Some were built way back in the nineteenth century with the advent of the railway, while others are brand new and incredibly ambitious. The impressive Gare de Mons in Belgium is a perfect example of the latter.
Plans to upgrade Mons station were initially floated in 2004, so it’s taken a while for this project to get off the ground. A competition was held in order to decide who would get to design it, with the contract ultimately going to architecture firm Santiago Calatrava in 2006. Nearly 20 years of delays, going over budget, and general difficulties later, it finally opened this October, in all of its stunning, futuristic glory.
The new station has been described as ‘a bridge’ between Mons’ old and new towns, literally connecting the city’s residential north to the historic city in the south via a central walkway, which has platforms sprouting out from either side. The structure consists of white, angular pillars and wooden accents, with an interior that sits somewhere between dinosaur fossil and sci-fi spaceship.
According to the architects, this project ‘transcends the challenges of constructing a new railway station’, and ‘has ignited a profound transformation in its surrounding areas’.
All in, the station has cost a whopping €323 million to construct. It seems as though it was worth it though, as the station has already been named as one of the most beautiful in the world right now by the prestigious architectural awards Prix Versailles.
Judges liked Gare de Mons’ ‘aerial style, clean lines, and dazzling white steel forms’ which shoot into the sky, and praised its ‘cathedral-like’ central bridge. You can discover the other stations that they awarded here.
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