Estació del Nord: the Oranges of the Northern Railway Company

Here, “Norte” is a company name. The Northern Railway Company had its first station right against the City Hall square. In the early 20th century the neighborhood was changing, and so was the traffic, and it was better to move away from the center. Demetrio Ribes, a Valencian architect, drew the new station in 1906. It opened in 1917.

Its façade stretches out, sand-colored, and three projecting parts break the line: a tower at each end, a central block for the entrance. At the top, a black eagle spreads its wings over a golden ball. Below, the clock is set in a wreath of green ceramic hung with clusters of oranges, dotted with white flowers. Diamonds striped red and gold repeat the city’s coat of arms. The iron and glass canopies below repeat it in a series.

These oranges come from two workshops. The first is La Ceramo, in Benicalap, where José Ros kept the secret of the metallic luster of medieval Valencian ceramics. The second is the workshop of Onofre Valldecabres, in Manises. The painter José Mongrell, for his part, designed two mosaic panels for the façade.

The vestibule continues the orchard. On the ceiling, between the wooden beams, ceramic fragments form foliage. On one door, “Buen Viaje” (“bon voyage”) is written in gilded letters between two roses; above it, an orange branch spreads its leaves and fruit over a background of pink shards. Other doors repeat it in other languages. And the letters of the word “Norte” intertwine everywhere, in the walls, in the stained glass, in the wood of this door, each time differently.

On the platform side, not a single flower is left: only metal. The shed is a black arch, 45 meters wide and nearly 200 long, set on hinged supports; at the time, it was a feat. The buffer stops have moved back over time, and the vestibule now takes up nearly a third of the space under the shed. The station has been a national monument since 1983. On the façade, its name reads in Valencian, Estació del Nord; inside, it is Norte.