Train station where Jews escaped Nazis to reopen

A grandiose railway station which was both an escape route for thousands of wartime Jews and a key junction for an illicit trade in Nazi gold is to reopen half a century after its closure.

The international terminal in Canfranc in the Pyrenees on the border between Spain and France was built in the style of a French chateau and was once dubbed the “Titanic of the Mountains” because of its size.

Fifty years after the station fell into disrepair and closed, it will reopen again next month after an ambitious restoration programme which symbolises the original spirit which led to its creation: unity between Spain and France.