Estación de Chamberí

For years, madrileños wandered what happened to the metro station called Chamberí – they knew it existed yet it appeared on no maps and no trains ever stopped there. Over four decades later, the mystery has been solved. The answer was that Chamberí station lay along Line 1, between the stops of Bilbao and Iglesia, until 1966 when Madrid’s trains (and, where possible, platforms) were lengthened. Logistical difficulties meant that Chamberí could not be extended and the station was abandoned. In early 2008 the Estación de Chamberí finally reopened to the public, if not for trains, serving as a museum piece that re-creates the era of the station’s inauguration in 1919 with advertisements from the time (including with Madrid’s then-four-digit phone numbers), ticket offices and other memorabilia almost a century old. It’s an engaging journey down memory lane. While admission was free at the time of research, there are plans to charge a small fee in the future.