Estação de Santa Apolónia Station

Santa Apolónia was the first railway station constructed in Lisbon and it was part of a grand plan to connect Europe with the Americas via rail and ocean liners. Today the station is the terminus for many of the countries inter-city and inter-country routes, for a travel guide to the station please click here. The Santa Apolónia lies in the Alfama district of east Lisbon and is on the banks of the Tagus estuary (Rio Tejo).

The station was built on the site of the old Santa Apolonia convent and the name was passed onto the station. The station, which was completed in 1865, was based upon the traditional neoclassical style of the era but the station more reflects a grand government department than a major train station. The entire white washed station is 117 meters long and as between the hills of Alfama and the River Tejo is only 25 meters wide.

The initial conception of the Estação de Santa Apolónia was to be the main hub as part of a major rail network that connected Europe by rail to America by ocean liner. The 1844 plans had the station set next to the River Tejo so that passengers could exit the station to board waiting cruise liners bound for America and the pier was to be known as the America's Wharf.

The designs floundered and building work was only begun in 1862 by a construction company called Oppermann and lead by the chief engineer João Evangelista de Abreu. The Estação de Santa Apolónia was inaugurated on May 1 of 1865 and direct train services to Madrid and the rest of Portugal soon followed.The plans to connect Europe with American were never finalised but the deep docks are in use today as cruise ships bound for the Mediterranean make a first stop in Lisbon.