July 18 1928 the spanish King Alfonso XIII and French President Gaston Doumergue opened the CanFranc railroad which connected the south of France (Pau) with the north of Spain (Zaragoza).

After 24 years of building and even much more years of developing the first train finally made its trip from Zaragoza.
The first ideas to connect the 2 countrys by a railroad trough the Pyrenees are dating from 1853.

After the opening the line didn't had it easy:
1929: Great depression
1931: Large fire
1936: Spanish civil war

At that point the line officially was taken out of work.
In the WW2 the Germans started to use the line again, mainly to
transport their Nazi-gold, and the French resistance tried to sabotage
the line in 1944.

Alltough it never would be a profitable line, it was re-opened in 1948.
Until 1970, when after a accident one of the bridges collapsed at the
French side.
No one was killed, but after that accident the line became unused.

When i visited the station in October 2006 i was surprised by the size of it!
Alltough most of it was broken, tagged and damaged it was not difficult to imagine how it would be in the better days of the station when all travelers had to be changed from one train into the other because Spain had a smaller track then the rest of Europe.
Also all luggage had to go through customs in these days.

Good news is that the station will be restored soon.
In a big part of the building they allready started and that way this building, which a rich history, will be saved for the future!