A 28-kilometer ride changed travel in Spain forever.

On October 28, 1848, the railway between Barcelona and Mataró opened, the first on the Iberian Peninsula. The project was championed by Miquel Biada, a Mataró native who had seen trains in Cuba, where a Spanish colonial railway already ran. Sadly, he died months before the line opened.

The trip along the Catalan coast took about an hour, and it launched a railway network that would transform Spain's industry and travel.

Do you love traveling by train?

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