Renfe launches a historical memory train bound for Portbou

Portbou was one of the last stops for the thousands of refugees who had to leave Spain when the Republican side lost the Civil War. After the fall of Barcelona, in January 1939, half a million people crowded at the French border, suffering from cold and hunger, with rain and snow, until they were allowed to pass. It was a half-hearted concession, considering that the government of Édouard Daladier locked many in Argelès-sur-Mer beach, where one of the various concentration camps was erected, in which they punished and left to die the citizens of their neighboring country.

All this silenced memory, especially in France, with derisory plaques on Argelès-sur-Mer beach, will be reclaimed in the Portbou Democratic Memory Train. This is an initiative launched by Renfe together with the Portbou City Council to publicize the last episode of the Civil War by taking a Rodalies train.

The first circulation will take place next Saturday, May 18. The round trip will depart around 8 in the morning from Estación de França and arrive around 10 in the morning at Estación de Portbou, with which the Barcelona building shares a canopy. The return is scheduled for 6 in the afternoon, arriving around a quarter past 8 at Estación de França. The price is 55 euros for adults and 20 euros for children (up to 14 years old). For children under 4 years old, it is free.

During the day, different activities will be carried out in Portbou, such as a theatrical visit and an excursion to the Memorial Democràtic, in Coll de Belitres, a somewhat hidden monument that pays homage to Spanish exiles. From there, today one can see how the French government expels migrants and leaves them at the border, walking down the road with their suitcases. It will also be an opportunity to see the Memorial to the Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, who arrived in the town of Girona fleeing the Nazis and died after being arrested by the Francoist authorities.

The historical memory train bound for Portbou is part of the thematic trains that Renfe is promoting, with the collaboration of town councils throughout Spain. Not only historical themes are covered, but there are also cultural and gastronomic ones. In Catalonia, the railway operator also works with the Barcelona Provincial Council, with whom it has already launched a tourist train that went to Mataró and Canet de Mar to discover their modernist past. The company plans to launch new routes in the coming months.

In other autonomous communities, the routes of the tourist trains offer excursions such as discovering Don Quixote's windmills and confronting them in Campo de Criptana; a dramatized visit to medieval Sigüenza, entering one of the castles from Game of Thrones; touring the lighthouses of the Galician coast or entering the Estrella Galicia Museum, with an Emilia Pardo Bazán cameo included.