Leipzig Central Station (Leipzig Hauptbahnhof) is, at 83,460 m², Europe's largest railway station when measured by floor area. It has 24 platforms housed in six iron trainsheds; a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches; and a 293 metre-long facade. It handles an average of 120,000 passengers per day.
The station was opened in 1915 as a joint terminal for the Royal Saxon State Railways and the Prussian state railways. The building has two identical domed entrance halls facing the street, one for each company. When the German railway systems were combined into the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the two halls lost this purpose. The building was damaged by bombing during World War II when roof over the concourse collapsed and one of the entrance halls was destroyed. The station was restored by the Deutsche Reichsbahn to its original appearance in the 1950s.
After German reunification the station was renovated and modernized by the Deutsche Bahn. The concourse floor was removed and two basement levels were dug out to create a shopping mall. Other areas of the building were largely restored, but also modernized at the time.
The City Tunnel Leipzig, leading from the south of Leipzig to the central station, is under construction and is expected to be finished in December 2013.
The station was used in the 1992 film Shining Through.
Read more about Leipzig Central Station: Train Services, Historic Exhibits, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words central and/or station:
“The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)