<p>135 years ago, one of the most beautiful train stations was opened in Prague</p>

Prague - 135 years ago, on October 15, 1875, one of the architecturally most valuable railway stations in the Czech Republic - the former Denis Railway Station in Prague - Těšnov - was solemnly put into operation. However, contemporaries can no longer admire the view of the neo-Renaissance building, which was referred to as the most beautiful station in Central Europe. It obstructed new road construction, and thus in 1985 it definitively disappeared in clouds of dust.
    The building rose on the border of New Town and Karlín between 1872 and 1875. The birth of the station was the work of the Austrian Northwest Railway (ÖNWB) - a company that began constructing a new long-distance connection between Vienna and Berlin in the early 1870s. However, the new line bypassed Prague by roughly 30 kilometers to the north. To somewhat alleviate the domestic discontent over the neglect of the capital, the ÖNWB decided to build a branch line into it.
    And the railway company did not skimp on the construction. The project was commissioned to its court architect, Karel Schlimp, a native of Velenice near Žatec. Schlimp, a professor at the Vienna University of Technology, materialized his vision in a truly generous way, when he designed a complex of buildings that were far beyond the often mediocre railway architecture. He left the side wings without external decorations, but equipped the central building all the more lavishly: a monumentally imposing Roman triumphal arch with Corinthian columns crowned by an allegorical sculpture of Austria - the protector of agriculture and industry. The spacious departure hall was then adorned with the coats of arms of the cities through which the railway passed. The wing extensions were intended for the operational needs of the railway; partly, Schlimp placed representative spaces, salons, waiting rooms, and a restaurant in them.
    The station carried the name Northwest for more than 40 years, after the company that built it. After 1919, it was named after the French historian and Slavicist Ernest Denis. The Nazis then renamed it Moldau Bahnhof (Vltava Station). After the war, the name Denisovo briefly returned, but the communists then renamed it Těšnov.
    Train operations at the station were terminated on July 1, 1972. The building, part of which was demolished, was listed as a cultural monument in 1978, yet ultimately had to give way to the automotive artery.