On October 28th, 1848, Spain’s first train line was inaugurated on peninsular territory. The route was from Barcelona to Mataró. This month, then, we celebrate the 175 anniversary.
In 1837, the first line of the country had already been inaugurated on the island of Cuba, then a Spanish territory, with the Havana-Güines route.
Promoted by Miquel Biada, from Mataró, the Barcelona-Mataró line made its first test trip on October 5th, 1848. Three days later, a trip was made with four hundred people and, finally, on the 28th the inauguration took place in October.
It was not all plain sailing and, as far as Badalona is concerned, the passage of the railway was not well received by everyone. It was, above all, the fishermen who opposed it the most – to the point that, at first, they had stoned some trains – because they considered it a danger since it affected their safety zone in the event of storms.
We take advantage of the anniversary to show several photographs of the train in Badalona which, as always, are preserved in the Image Archive of the Museum of Badalona.
