A day for history

"The monumental city of Compostela, the Rome of the West, will see with jubilation the longed-for day when the locomotive will bring it closer to one of the best ports of this ancient Kingdom. To the efforts of its best sons it owes this event and invites the whole of Galicia to come and join in the rejoicing that pays tribute to these eminences and celebrates such an event".

The town council of Santiago de Compostela announced the great event. Although, in reality, they were going to celebrate the festival in the neighbouring town hall, because the station was in Cornes, in the municipality of Conxo. Something that the municipal corporation complained about, although it announced that the time would soon come to have a station closer to the city.

Criticism aside, it was a historic day. On 15 September 1873, the bells rang, the palenque bombs exploded, the balconies were decorated with coloured cloths, the music of the municipal band and that of the artillerymen sounded? A hot-air balloon flew over the public dropping handkerchiefs stamped with a steam locomotive and the claim to be the "First in Galicia".

At the station there were four locomotives ready: the Montero Ríos, the Coruña, the Santiago and the Jerez (later to be called Pontevedra). Yes, the company's president, Eugenio Montero Ríos, had the honour of lending his name to one of these pioneering locomotives.

The illustration you are looking at shows the exact moment of departure. It was a quarter to twelve at midday, when Father Palacios of Compostela Cathedral blessed the moment from an altar set up for the occasion. Steam flooded the scene, before a multitude of curious onlookers who came to watch the spectacle.

Two locomotives, the Montero Ríos and the Jerez, on the first inaugural trip. Some 1,500 people took part in this historic event, and the authorities were greeted with expectation all along the route to O Carril, where they were received by the authorities of the Arousa City Council.

More than a decade later, the train finally arrives in Galicia.