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Diari de Catalunya

Sagrera's old freight station disappears, but its legacy endures

The demolition of the emblematic Sagrera railway terminal concludes, leaving only a porcelain sign and an air-raid shelter as witnesses to its past.

Image of an old porcelain sign with faded letters, in a railway museum.
IA

Image of an old porcelain sign with faded letters, in a railway museum.

The old Sagrera freight station, a key point in Barcelona's railway history, has been completely demolished this week, leaving behind almost a century of activity and transforming the urban landscape of the area.

The porcelain sign with the designation 'Barcelona-Clot (Sagrera), mercancías a pequeña velocidad' is the only surviving vestige of the old Sagrera freight station. This element was removed at the end of 2025 to prevent its destruction and is currently housed at the Catalonia Railway Museum in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf). The demolition of the rest of the building concluded this week, despite efforts by various entities to save it.
Platforms such as Promoció del Transport Públic (PTP), the Centre d’Estudis del Transport Terminus, and the Associació Coordinadora Pro Museu del Transport de Barcelona, with the support of the Sagrera Neighborhood Association and municipal groups, unsuccessfully tried to stop the demolition. The urban project planned for the area includes the creation of a large linear green park over the railway tracks of the new Sagrera intermodal station and the construction of 2,230 homes, 40% of which will be subsidized housing.
The freight terminal began construction in 1918, promoted by the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Zaragoza y Alicante (MZA) under the direction of engineer Eduard Maristany. It entered service in 1922 and for almost seven decades, until the late nineties, it was Barcelona's main freight station and a key point for railway transport from France. Along with the Morrot station in Montjuïc, it was fundamental in Catalan railway history.
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"Maristany wanted to turn Barcelona into one of the great railway capitals and, for that, a monumental building was also needed, one that would look good when people went to pick up a package."

Ferran Armengol · Historian and railway researcher
At its peak activity, the ground floor of the building was used for freight billing and customs procedures for international transport. The upper floors housed railway worker families. The station was surrounded by an immense railway yard covering twenty hectares, with more than 15.7 kilometers of tracks.
In addition to the sign, an air-raid shelter from the Civil War found near the terminal is planned for preservation. This bunker, located last November, connected the two entrance buildings of the old station and will be integrated into the area's transformation. Its good state of preservation and location have not affected the construction schedule. It is believed to have been promoted by the CNT, which had collectivized the railway sector during the conflict.

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