Leipzig Hauptbahnhof

Train station, I know, big deal. But it is a big deal, and here's why:

The Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is the largest train station in Europe. Seems strange it would be this one, but it is. In the late 1800s, Leipzig became a major railway junction for traffic through the Kingdom of Saxony. There were a handful of different companies running their trains out of a handful of terminals. It improved a bit as companies were consolidated, many coming under either the control of the Royal Saxon State Railways and the Prussian state railways (that's not a mistake-- the s and r aren't capitalized in the official name, German, you know...)

Eventually, the government got involved. In this case, the local government in Leipzig, which decided there should be one passenger terminal and one only. The two companies would have to work it out. They did, and the result was this massive rail station, with two grand domed entrance halls, administration spaces, shopping and all that went with them. Oh, and platforms to board the trains, twenty-six in all. The station was completed in 1915 after nine years. The western half of the station was the Prussian side, the eastern the Saxon.

There are also some interesting old trains on the east side of the train shed.En savoir plus