Maputo Central Railway Station

Maputo's central station is the grandest piece of colonial architecture in Mozambique and one of the handsomest railway buildings in Africa. Work began in 1908, the building was inaugurated on 19 March 1910 in a modest ceremony before the governor-general, and decoration continued until 1916. The initial plans came from the engineers Mario Veiga and Alfredo Augusto Lisboa de Lima; from 1913 the façade was enriched with ornament by Pietro Buffa Buccellato, and a great central dome was added. The result is a Beaux-Arts palace in brick and cement, rising to about 51 metres facing the square now called Praça dos Trabalhadores.

The dome is the station's signature, and the subject of a persistent myth: it is routinely credited to Gustave Eiffel, but it was designed by José Ferreira da Costa and made by Evans & Plows, a firm from Johannesburg. With the First World War under way, the metalwork was fabricated in South Africa rather than in England as first intended. Look for the copper-clad cupola above the central arch, the smaller domes that flank it, the wrought-iron latticework and the marble columns inside.

The station was the head of the southern railway that tied the port of Lourenço Marques — as the city was then called — to the Transvaal, Swaziland and Rhodesia, and its splendour reflects the wealth that flowed through that link. In 2009 Newsweek placed it among the world's most beautiful stations, and Travel + Leisure did the same in 2011. A small railway museum opened in 2015 and the building also hosts concerts and events, so the hall often has life beyond the timetable.

Getting there

The station stands about 2 km from the centre of Maputo. Maputo International Airport (MPM) is roughly 5.6 km away, a short taxi ride. The building faces Praça dos Trabalhadores, and its façade is best seen from across the square.