One afternoon in Chamberí

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Estación de Chamberí

Madrid


Estación de Chamberí, the long-lost ghost station of Madrid's metro, is now a museum piece that recreates the era of the station’s inauguration in 1919 with advertisements from that time (including Madrid’s then-four-digit phone numbers), ticket offices and other memorabilia almost a century old. It’s an engaging journey down memory lane.

For years, madrileños (residents of Madrid) wondered what happened to the Chamberí metro station – they knew it existed, yet it appeared on no maps and no trains ever stopped there. The answer was that the station lay along line 1, between the stops of Bilbao and Iglesia, until 1966 when Madrid’s trains (and, where possible, platforms) were lengthened. Logistical difficulties meant that Chamberí could not be extended and the station was abandoned. In 2008 the Estación de Chamberí finally reopened to the public (just not for trains).