Volgograd railway station

Volgograd railway station
Cтанция Волгоград I
Volgograd railway terminal
General information
Type	Railway station
Location	Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast, Russia
Coordinates	48°42′45″N 44°30′49″E
Completed	1862/1954
Owner	Russian Railways

Volgograd railway station (Volgograd I, Russian: Волгоград I) is the main railway station of the city of Volgograd, the capital city of Volgograd Oblast, Russia, formerly known as Stalingrad, and before that as Tsaritsyn. It is located in the Central District of the city at Railway Station Square 1. The station is one of the largest in Russia and serves long-distance trains and suburban trains. The station is the hub for services to five main destinations: Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Moscow, Saratov and Astrakhan.

History

The first railway to serve Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) was the Volga-Don railway in 1862. The first railway station was constructed of wood. In 1871 the station was replaced with a brick structure.

During the Second World War, the building was almost completely destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad. In the period from July 1951 to May 1954 the new station building was erected just north of the old building. At the site of the former building is now the Volgograd branch of the Volga Railroad. The station commissioned June 2, 1954. In 1997 the building of the railway station was designated an architectural monument. In 2005, the station building was renovated for the 60th anniversary of Victory Day, the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.^{[citation needed]}

On December 29, 2013, the station was the site of a suicide bombing in which at least 16 people were killed.

Description

The building is an example of the Stalinist architecture style which was popular in Russia from the 1930s until Stalin's death in the 1950s. Station is a three-story building with a ground floor tower crowned with a spire. The building is made of a combination of brick and concrete, the facade consists of ornamented granite. The interior walls are mainly marble. The ceiling is decorated with stucco and several paintings of the battles that took place in the city.