Asturias Railway Museum

It was the second half of the 19th century, and the manufacturing, industrial and working-class Gijón/Xixón was growing steadily. A key element of this growth was communications and transport, and it was in this context that the Estación del Norte was born, transforming the quiet, rural setting of El Natahoyo into one of the city's most important working-class suburbs. The area, bordered by the railway and the sea, and structured by the Candás road, became the site of numerous industries, including some of the most important shipyards of the 20th century in Spain. The railway allowed industrial goods to be transported to the sea and passengers to travel along the central axis of Asturias, from Gijón/Xixón to the mining areas and vice versa. In short, it was the backbone of life, the economy, social changes and the industrial revolution; it was a symbol of progress and knowledge.

Nowadays, all this recent history, and all the Asturian working class, industrial, technological and social history has a clear exponent in the use given to the Estación del Norte de Gijón/Xixón when it ceased its activity in 1990, thus ending more than one hundred years of history, and opening knowledge, culture and leisure to current generations and travellers through its new life as a Railway Museum.