Madrid’s Atocha train station has a verdant surprise awaiting the unsuspecting traveller with a lovely tropical garden inhabiting what was once a train shed that opened in 1892.
It had its tracks removed in 1992 and is now a lush garden complete with a rehomed turtle pool (minus its inhabitants who were relocated in 2018 to a local wildlife park)
The 4,000 square metre garden contains over 7,000 plants of 400 different species from the Americas, Asia, and Australia.
You will find breadfruit and coconut trees from Polynesia, royal palms and mahogany trees from Cuba, rubber trees from Brazil, banana trees from the Philippines and palm bottle trees from the Indian Ocean islands.
These days high-speed trains leave from 15 modern terminus platforms built as a southward extension to the old trainshed, known as Madrid Puerta de Atocha.