1912: The Public Debut of a Funicular Railway in Spain

August 25, 1912

In northern Spain, operations began for a funicular in the city and municipality of San Sebastián. This cable railway system was built on a steep slope of Mount Igueldo. The Igueldo funicular was designed by engineer Emilio Huizi. Another engineer, Severiano Goñi, supervised the construction of the railway. The Igueldo funicular was officially inaugurated by Queen Maria Cristina, the mother of King Alfonso XIII. She was a frequent summertime visitor to San Sebastián.

This funicular was initially used to transport people to a casino on top of Mount Igueldo. In the time since that casino was closed in 1967, the railway has been primarily used instead to bring people to both an amusement park and four-star hotel at the mountain’s summit.

Photo Credit: LBM1948 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:LBM1948) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Additional information on the Igueldo funicular is available at  https://www.barcelo.com/guia-turismo/en/spain/san-sebastian/things-to-do/monte-igueldo/

A video of this railway can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIyj1cqlby0