A 90 min. film directed by Peter Krüger, starring Johan Leysen (the narrator), shot by Rimvydas Leipus (2010).
The film goes beyond presenting the history of why and how the station was build at the end of the 19th century by King Leopold II of Belgium, and beyond discussing its main architectural features. Right from the start the focal statement is pronounced “It was clearly the intention to be overwhelmed by the feeling of holiness in a cathedral devoted to world trade and traffic.”
The station, dubbed by the Belgians the ‘Railway Cathedral’, is truly an architectural marvel caught in stunning shots by the cameramen. What is shown is the real as well as a specifically focused perspective, the play of light, the architectural details, the movement of passengers through space and time, as well as the intimate mood of the narrator, the presenter of this architectural gem to the viewer.
The magnificence of the station’s exterior architecture is even surpassed by the interior design and décor. There is a lot of marble: decorative columns, balustrades, balconies, galleries, regal stairways, and the floor, laid out in a squared pattern composed of 3 different kinds of Belgian marble. This train station is indeed “a place of beauty and glory” as stated by the narrator.
The camera zooms on to and lingers over the architectural details that one finds in Christian cathedrals. The imposing Dome which lets in the light is not unlike that of the St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome. And then there is a choir standing on the marble stairway singing about Devine creation: “Let there be light, and there was light.”
The narrator chooses to compare the train station’s dome to that of the Pantheon. He comments that the dome’s supporting walls are not decorated as in the Pantheon (not with Roman Gods) but rather with the sculpted symbols of trade and commerce. He notes that “in the place where in the Pantheon an emperor’s image would be located, is placed a clock…These are the Gods of the 19th century looking down at the visitors.”
The film forces one to ask a question, if the power of trade and commerce is so strong that it runs our modern life from the late 19th century to the present, why did the architects of this building resorted to incorporate the traditional elements that were part of the spiritual worship into a seemingly mundane public building of a train station?
The train station's main building was designed in the 19th century by the Bruges architect L. Delacenserie. What was his vision in conceiving it in such a monumental way? Did he consider that the commerce and trade would be becoming the Gods of the future centuries, the new objects of “worship”, requiring therefore the new type of a cathedral? Is this why he incorporated elements from the traditional places of worship into it, to signify the continuation of time and space through which a society moves forward?
What is also spiritualized in this building, through architecture, the interior reliefs, and the exterior roof sculptures, is the regal power of the state. The stone Belgian lion on the roof, the replica of the royal crown above the archway, and the live lion let roam freely at night in the empty station’s hall, called by the narrator “the income hall”, state that not only the past but also the present Belgian power is alive, well and strong.
Beside the Christian monotheistic and early Roman pantheistic elements of spirituality encompassed in the architecture of the station, the narrator also discovers that this monument also includes metaphysical concepts such as those of non-existence of time, the blending of time and space, and space being dissipated by areal lines and emptiness. The linear platforms covered by an immense expanse of iron and glass of the vaulted ceiling create a strange type of a perspective causing one to question what is real and what is not regarding time and space.
The station recently underwent extensive reconstruction. A new open concept was added: two new lower levels of platforms for high speed trains, passing underneath the city. This brought the light down into the underground, allowing it to be lit from above, in addition to lighting panels. The narrator comments, “By adding lighting panels one never has the feeling of descending in the underworld.” So the building’s architecture denies the existence of the underworld as well as of time and space, the same as these concepts are denied by the metaphysics.
The hall has now become a social place where people meet, have coffee, and participate in cultural events: choir singing, tango dancing, etc. The new Gods of the present century are usurping the train station’s space, and they are the Gods of culture and art.
This short video on YouTube is a series of images from the film:
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