The legends of the ghost station of Chamberí: strange noises and appearances of the girl with the balloon

Tiled walls, wooden furniture, ceramic advertisements for Philips lamps or Carabaña water, "the best purgative"... Entering the

means going back a century and moving to the 1960s.

Those were the times when there were two different aisles for passengers getting on and off, in which the inspectors checked

and in which the Metro employees could not get married.

The metropolitan company considered that women who married were not going to carry out their work properly as they had to attend to their family obligations.

and, in 1930, they requested the intervention of the Government so that it mediated before the company and not fire them for the mere fact of getting married.

All this is now remembered in the museum of this ghost station in Chamberí, which has begun rehabilitation works this August to stop its deterioration.

This halt is located under some hedges and gardens on Calle Luchana and

because the surfaces in this area are not waterproofed.

The corridors of the ghost station.

The restoration works are focused

, repainting the walkway and the accesses to the platforms and removing the oxidation from the metal elements of the old ticket offices.

Chamberí station was inaugurated in October 1919 and closed in 1966. At that time, Metro needed to increase the number of train cars, for which it was necessary to

.

In this way, the Bilbao station was extended to the north and the Iglesia station to the south, so that both were very close to the Chamberí station.

This station curves and has a slope, which made it very difficult to lengthen the platforms, so it fell into disuse.

After more than 40 years abandoned,

and turn it into a museum and this summer new repair tasks are undertaken.

A restorer repairs one of the ceramic signs.

«With these conservation tasks at the Chamberí station we want to maintain the original appearance and

.

In addition, we intend to continue offering citizens who continue to visit it as an important part of the network of Metro Museums that are part of the railway cultural heritage of the Community", says the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, David Pérez.

Virginia Gutiérrez is one of the restorers who intervenes in the repair work and removes with a scalpel the humidity from the advertisement for the Philips lamp, "the best in the world".

“I am scraping off the saline efflorescences that have formed with the humidity.

I have to be very careful

.

It will take about 15 days to reintegrate the lost areas of this mural," explains Gutiérrez, an employee of the Insitu company.

Gutiérrez works while listening in the background to the movement of the trains that continue to pass through this station without stopping, which has given rise to

.

movie set

In fact, the film director Fernando León de Aranoa shot scenes from his film

here because he claimed to see people when he was riding in the car.

No, they weren't hallucinations but rather

from the Iglesia Metro and spent the night in Chamberí.

The next morning they had to leave before the first train passed because otherwise they would have to stay there the whole day so as not to be run over by the convoys.

Convoys pass through the ghost station in front of a museum mannequin.

Far from denying the mysterious stories that surround this emblematic place, Luis María González, head of Andén Cero -which manages the Metro museums- adds to

.

In fact, in his book Chamberí and his ghosts recounts some of them.

«When the workers came to do the work of extending the platforms, the next morning, they found that all their work was undone and they had to start over.

Tradition has it that over the years

and also some police who went to investigate the events.

For this reason, on May 21, 1966, the head of the Police ordered the station to be closed and never to be opened again, "says González.

The stories of intrigue follow each other.

Ana Melgar, an employee at the reception, affirms that some visitors testify to having seen and

: «A lady came to work on a shoot and came out with a white face saying that she had seen the man with the mustache.

She was referring to the one they call

, who is Alfonso XIII, great-grandfather of King Felipe, who inaugurated the Metro in 1919».

The ghost girl in the balloon

Melgar also claims to have heard strange noises.

One day he was chatting animatedly with a colleague in a rather loud tone, and suddenly

.

«It was like when they hit you in the wall of the house so that you shut up.

We searched the entire station, but we didn't see anyone.

Another day a still image of a headless person was left on the security cameras.

In any case, if there are ghosts, let them come and sit by my side », he jokes.

But, without a doubt, the star ghost of the station is

, which, according to González, has been seen by numerous people.

Legend has it that it was a girl from the Tribunal hospice who got lost during a visit to the facilities and discovered a priest and a nun in an affectionate attitude.

The nun was one of her teachers and, after being surprised, she and her priest decided to throw her on the platform.

«In 2010, a security guard was tired of seeing the girl and even called the police.

One day she left and she never came back », explains González.

Lovers of history and mystery

of the station on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, except in the month of August when it is closed.

Maybe the balloon girl is still waiting.

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