Antwerp Central Station

Antwerp Central Station, designed by the Belgian architect Louis Delacenserie, was built between 1895 and 1905 on Koningin Astridplein in Antwerp, Belgium, replacing an earlier station of 1836 on the same site. Its eclectic stone facade and vast iron and glass train hall, spanning 185 metres and covering some 12,000 square metres beneath a great dome, earned it the Flemish nickname spoorwegkathedraal, or railway cathedral. The station suffered damage from a German V-2 rocket strike during the Second World War, visible today as a wave like distortion in part of its roof structure, and its glass panels were later replaced with polycarbonate sheeting during a 1986 restoration. Since 2007 it has functioned as a through station rather than a terminus, after a tunnel was built beneath the city to let high speed trains pass without reversing direction, and it has been repeatedly ranked among the world's most beautiful railway stations, including first place in a 2014 Mashable ranking and fourth in a 2009 Newsweek list.