In front of you is the door through which Medellín went out into the world. It looks like a quiet building today, but for decades coffee, goods, news and travellers came and went from here.

1Forty years of works

Antioquia lived hemmed in by mountain ranges. Reaching the Magdalena River, and from there the sea, meant days on muleback. In 1874 the regional government hired the Cuban engineer Francisco Javier Cisneros to build a railway to Puerto Berrío. The first rail was laid in 1875, but civil wars, lack of money and the terrain stopped the works again and again.

The train reached Medellín in 1914. The station building, designed by Enrique Olarte in the Republican style, went up between 1907 and 1914. Even so, the mountain at La Quiebra still had to be crossed: passengers changed to road transport until a tunnel about 3.7 kilometres long opened in 1929.

With the La Quiebra tunnel, Medellín was finally linked by rail to the Magdalena River and, through it, to the Caribbean.

2The end of the line

In 1961 the department sold the railway to the national government. Roads and lorries gained ground and the service slowly faded away. The station survived: since 1996 it has been a national heritage site, and today the Antioquia Railway Foundation looks after it.

3What to look for

  • The end pavilions with their mansard roofs.
  • The arched windows of the Republican-style façade.
  • The old carriage displayed next to the building.
Old postcard of the Medellín Station of the Antioquia Railway
The station around 1920, a few years after the train reached Medellín.

Documented

The railway reached Medellín in 1914, and the continuous link to Puerto Berrío was completed in 1929 with the La Quiebra tunnel.

Sources and credits

Fundación Ferrocarril de Antioquia; Colombian Ministry of Culture, Decree 746 of 1996 (railway stations); Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, «La Estación Medellín y la arquitectura republicana en Colombia».

Photos:

  • Grey façade of the old Medellín Station of the Antioquia Railway: Kamilokardona, CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • Old postcard of the Medellín Station of the Antioquia Railway: Gonzalo Escovar Gaviria, Dominio público.

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