• 2018
  • 52m
The Cathedrals of Steam - Europe's Railway Stations

Summary The series tells the epic story of five European railway stations. We discover these Cathedrals of the Industrial Age in their present and history combining human stories with architecture, past and contemporary stories. View more details

  • 2018
  • 52m

The Cathedrals of Steam - Europe's Railway Stations

Directed : Unknown

Written : Unknown

Stars : Nele Kestens Myriam Ajar Ben Henderson

All cast & crew

7

Details

Genres : History Documentary

Release date : Nov 25, 2018

Countries of origin : France

Official sites : Directors Homepage (german-english-french)

Language : English German French

Filming locations : Milano, Italy

Production companies : Laokoon Filmgroup Stefilm Yuzu Productions

Summary The series tells the epic story of five European railway stations. We discover these Cathedrals of the Industrial Age in their present and history combining human stories with architecture, past and contemporary stories. View more details

Details

Genres : History Documentary

Release date : Nov 25, 2018

Countries of origin : France

Official sites : Directors Homepage (german-english-french)

Language : English German French

Filming locations : Milano, Italy

Production companies : Laokoon Filmgroup Stefilm Yuzu Productions

Photos

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Episodes

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Episode 1 • Nov 25, 2018
Gare de Lyon
One of Europe's the most important train stations is also the youngest of Paris. In 1900 France's capital is preparing for the World Expo and is busy building: the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the bridge Alexandre III and the Gare d'Orsay. The railway company PLM seizes the opportunity to offers itself the Gare de Lyon - a proud magnificent building in the Belle-Epoque style. A monument of railway architecture with a 100-meter-long facade, decorated with allegories and a 64-meter-high clock tower. A copy of London's Big Ben. Inside the station a splendid restaurant, "Le Train Bleu". Two marble stairs lead to an impressive dining room ornate with 41 painting by 30 different artists - the elite painters of their time. They immortalized France's most beautiful landscapes. The PLM owned the biggest railway network in the world. With the Gare de Lyon it celebrated its own empire and showed off its luxurious image. Not far away from the station stands the Gare du Nord. Another stop of the "Train Bleu" carriages on their way to Cannes. Second oldest and biggest train station of Paris. 23 statues made by well-known sculptors decorate the 180 meters long facade. From Paris you also get to Nantes - home town of Jules Verne. Filmmaker Jeremy JP Fekete traveled to the city close to the Atlantic ocean to the big hangars of "Ile de Nantes", where a group of fantastic builders set up their workshop. There, where not so long-ago ships were built, now surprisingly alive-looking and impressively monumental mechanical animals are brought to life.
Episode 2 • Nov 26, 2018
Stazione Centrale Milano
A stone mountain rises in the middle of the city of Milan. It's train station Milano Centrale - has been built over 25 years and became a cathedral of travel. The monumental building is characterized by two eras: monarchy and fascism. Traces of these political systems can still be found at the end of track 21. Like the "sala reale" - the royal waiting room of the Savoy king. Taking a closer look one recognizes the signs of the subsequent rule of Benito Mussolini, a swastika taken in the wooden parquet of the waiting room. For a long time it was hidden under a huge carpet. Thanks to historians Milano Centrale remembers it's whole past. The station was created at a time when the Italian "Styles Liberty" came into vogue. He coined the art and architecture in Milan. But also, that of the casino in the neighboring San Pellegrino Terme. A gambling and pleasure temple of the Milanese bourgeoisie. The nouveau rich of the industrial age travelled by train and spent their time in cures and forbidden amusements. At that time a new design for modern necropolises blossomed in Italy. Author and director Jeremy JP Fekete discovers the Cimitero Monumentale, opened in 1866, near the sidings of the Milanese railway station. Allegorical death angels and grieving Marys combined the idea of a "city of the dead" in the middle of the "city of the living". Created as a necropolis for the Milanese bourgeoisie. Treasures from the railway time can be found in the Squadra Rialzo, the old mechanic workshop of the Milan station. Like old locomotives, still in use on the railway lines of the surrounding area which make the heart of every old and young train lover beat faster. Driving a locomotive became for some a philosophy of life.
Episode 3 • Nov 27, 2018
Antwerpen Centraal
Antwerpen Centraal is a jewel in the "city of diamonds". Its gigantic dome reminds of the Pantheon in Rome. That is why it is named railway cathedral by the residents of the city. It is no coincidence that the palatial building was considered as the stony manifestation of the emerging colonial power. Even if King Leopold II referred to it as a "petite belle gare" ("a beautiful small station"). Wall to wall with the station lies Antwerp's green heart - the Zoological garden. Here the Okapis bear testimony to the claim of the Belgian Kingdom to be a world empire. In the 19th century one could admire here the first giraffes in Europe, brought from Congo through the Antwerp harbor, the elderly counterpart of the train station. Ships of big companies like Hapag Lloyd and Red Star Line used to anchor here. Around two million Europeans sailed away by the turn of the the 19th century, the new promised land, America. Antwerp has always been proud of its railway station. Author and director Jeremy JP Fekete is exploring the indivisible connection between the station and the city residents. He tells beautiful anecdotes, from the timid kiss of their first love on the station benches to the loss of a beloved teddy bear in the bustle of jostling travelers. While most of the people are just passengers, some Antwerpeners stay close to it their entire life, like the Jewish diamond manufacturers. That's is why this part of the city is called the "Jerusalem of the North". And that is why Antwerp is also called "City of the shining stones".
Episode 4 • Nov 28, 2018
Nyugati Pályaudvar- Budapest
Gustav Eiffel was already impressed by Budapest - the Hungarian capital of the former Danube monarchy. Even more when his office won the competition for the concourse of glass of the Nyugati Pályaudvar in 1874. With over 6000 square meters and 25 meters height it used to be the fifth biggest train station of the world, and for many years Europe's most modern one. Today the Austrian-Hungarian Train station cathedral is the only one that was barely modernized since her conception. Filmmaker Jeremy JP Fekete rummages in the almost forgotten corners of the old-worthy station: just like the majestic waiting room. Stuck in a deep slumber since around 100 years and awaiting rediscovery. Once a year its dusty rest is disturbed when the brilliant empress Sissi train departs Nyugati Pályaudvar station on the old rails in direction Gödöllö - to the favorite castle of the empress. A station in Budapest that rivals Nyugati Pályaudvar in age and beauty is the Keleti Pályaudvar, built years after it. Stone on stone, permeated by Hungarian national pride - as a counterpart to the imperial Nyugati Pályaudvar. From its platforms the MAV symphony orchestra would drive for decades throughout the entire country after the second World War Art to spread art and culture to the Magyars after World War 2. Today the orchestra plays in great concert venues of Europe. Completely in the hands of children there is the pioneer railway. A narrow-gauge railway that transports tourists and view-hungry inhabitants of Budapest to the top of the Szechenyi mountain since 1948. Engendered by a socialist education program for railway workers.
Episode 5 • Nov 29, 2018
St. Pancras
The station St Pancras is the symbol of the great "Railway-Mania" of the industrial age. It was built for the second World Expo of London in 1862. The needed ground for the construction was gained on the slum and church land next to St Pancras church. The dead in the cemetery were simply transferred to another resting place. The new building is a different kind of "cathedral" - made of cast iron and glass. Just the concourse with its 74 meters broad arc is a masterpiece of architecture. The church architect George Gilbert Scott, back then already a celebrity, won the competition of administration building and Midland hotel. The 38 rooms in the Chamber's Club, the lobby, the restaurants, the old Ladies' Smoking Room - back then the first in the world - and "The Grand Staircase" with its cascades of carpet let us enter an stranger, great time: the time if the initial opening 1873, the time where England ruled the world and Victoria was still empress of India. Train stations like St. Pancras in London are for followers of Steampunk real temples of their phantasies and dreams. Their elements are steam and gear driven mechanics, victorian clothing style with the corresponding values and adventure romanticism like in the worlds of H. G. Wells or Jules Verne. With this the steampunkers create their view on the future, like it could have happened in past times. Author and director Jeremy JP Fekete way to some of them lead to a former water pumping station from the victorian times. An unexpected contrast comes from the way St. Pancras is kept pigeon-free: through falcons.
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