Once hailed as the "Titanic of the Pyrenees", Canfranc International Station in northern Spain was plagued by disaster, derailment and decades of abandonment. Now, almost 100 years after its grand opening, the Beaux-Arts giant has been reborn as a five-star hotel – and could soon welcome international trains again.

Monstrous in scale yet elegant in design, Canfranc International Station's 200m-long, Beaux-Arts facade seems curiously out of place in a mountain village of just 500 residents. But this behemoth tucked high in the Spanish Pyrenees isn't merely incongruous; it's often called Europe's unluckiest train station.

When it opened to great fanfare in 1928, the lavish new transit hub was meant to shuttle hundreds of thousands of passengers between Canfranc and the French city of Pau. But almost from the start, misfortune struck. A fire gutted the building just three years later; the Great Depression slowed repairs; then the Spanish Civil War ground services to a halt. During World War Two, Canfranc became a hotbed of intrigue where Jewish refugees, escaped POWs and downed Allied airmen were smuggled across the border from Nazi-occupied France under the noses of German soldiers and Gestapo agents stationed on the French-controlled side. In 1970, a disastrous train derailment destroyed a key bridge on the French side, severing the line for good. The station was abandoned soon after.

Almost a century after its opening, however, the "Titanic of the Pyrenees" – as it became known – is finally turning its bad luck around. In 2023, after years of renovation, the station reopened as a five-star hotel while plans are afoot to rebuild the lost international rail route through the mountains.

"Welcome to Canfranc Estacion," said receptionist Maria Camara, when I checked in after a long day's travel into the mountains. Like all the staff at the formerly derelict station-turned-luxury hotel, Camara was dressed in a 1920s-inspired uniform designed to evoke a sense of rail nostalgia and seated in a grand, vaulted lobby that was once the ticketing hall. "I hope you enjoyed your journey," she added, as the bellboy strolled over with a tray of Champagne.

My journey wasn't quite as enjoyable as the welcome drink. The Barcelo Group may have transformed Canfranc International Station into an opulent hotel – complete with an indoor swimming pool and spa, an Art Deco bar and a Michelin-starred restaurant serving Aragonese cuisine within a restored wagon – but railway infrastructure remains in a state of disrepair.

Starting early that morning in San Sebastian in Spain's mountainous Basque Country, train cancellations forced me onto a rail replacement bus to Zaragoza, Aragon's regional capital. From there, the domestic train to Canfranc – the only part of the line still in use – was closed for upgrades, so I caught another train to Huesca and a final rail replacement bus into Canfranc, arriving as the sun dipped behind the peaks.

Train Journeys

Train Journeys is a BBC Travel series that celebrates the world's most interesting train rides and inspires readers to travel overland.

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