Beira train station

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Beira train station. Opened in 1966, designed by Francisco José de Castro, Paulo de Melo Sampaio and João Garizo do Carmo
Previous provisional train station (1902)

The Beira train station , in Portuguese "Estação Ferroviária da Beira", is the central train station in the Mozambican city ​​of Beira . The building, inaugurated in 1966, is the starting point for the two railway lines of Mozambique's middle railway corridor to Zimbabwe and the province of Tete .

history

The Beira Junction Railway Company , which had the concession for the routes of the corridor, was planning the construction of a station for the up-and-coming city of Beira between 1930 and 1938. However, due to financial difficulties caused by the Second World War , this did not happen.

In the fifties there were renewed attempts to build a train station. The railway company asked the city council for their help. In 1957, both of them announced an architecture competition for which only one architect, Paulo de Melo Sampaio, applied. That is why the city architect of Beira, José Bernardino Ramalhete , initiated a team of three out of four architects based in the city: Francisco José de Castro , Paulo de Melo Sampaio and João Garizo do Carmo . The team submitted their design in 1959, with Castro designing the associated office building, Carmo the entrance building and Sampaio the station itself. In 1961, the Portuguese Ministry of Finance approved the construction, and construction began in 1963. The inauguration of the station in the presence of the governor-general of the province took place on 1 October 1966.

The station building consists of two parts, the office building and the entrance hall to the station. The one-storey, 57-meter-high hall is spanned by a large arched roof with seven struts, ten double-door entrances form the entrance to the station. The seven-story office building, with its numerous vertical sun protection elements, is enthroned above the roofed hall. The design by the three architects corresponds to a very modern, functional style.

The station has been in operation since it opened and has not lost its function after Mozambique's independence. In 1975 all companies were nationalized and since then CFM has owned and operated the building complex.

It is registered with the number 31692 in the Portuguese monument database Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico , which also includes works by former Portuguese colonies .

literature

  • André Renga Faria Ferreira: Obras públicas em Moçambique: inventário da produção arquitectónica executada entre 1933 e 1961 , Master's thesis at the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 2006 ( available online as a pdf).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elisiário Miranda: No caminho de uma arquitectura racional: Infraestruturas modernas em Mozambique. (pdf) Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, November 29, 2011, p. 3 , accessed on June 22, 2014 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ António Sopa, Elisiário Miranda, José Manuel Fernandes: Estação Ferroviária. In: Património de Influência Portugues (HPIP). Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, October 17, 2012, accessed June 22, 2014 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ Ana Magalhães: Estação de Caminhos de Ferro da Beira: Apogeu e Crítica do Movimento Moderno em Mozambique. Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, October 26, 2012, accessed June 22, 2014 (Portuguese).
  4. ^ Tiago Lourenço: Estação Ferroviária da Beira. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA). 2011, accessed June 22, 2014 (Portuguese).

Coordinates: 19 ° 49 ′ 32.2 ″  S , 34 ° 50 ′ 16.5 ″  E