Secundino Zuazo’s intermediate stations on the Caminreal–Zaragoza rail line: minor architectures for a paradigm shift

The firm Compañía del Ferrocarril Central de Aragón built 21 stations and halts along the 120 kilometres separating Caminreal and Zaragoza. The construction of this line in the 1930s marked a turning point in Spain’s railway history as it was an example of adapting technological solutions to the circumstances of the environment. Its most important novelty, however, was that great architects provided minor architectures, which served as an experimental laboratory of design mechanisms that would end up being identified with modernity in our country. The stations designed for this line by Secundino Zuazo (1887–1971) represented an opportunity for him to reflect on a modern language combining rationalist elements with local traditional ones but without ever losing sight of the appropriateness to the surroundings. The rational use of new materials, whose qualities differ greatly from traditional ones, determined a new architecture.

Der Mitropa-Pokal und die Legende mit den roten Schlafwagen. Fußball, Raumkonstruktion und europäische Eisenbahnverkehrsgeschichte in den 1920er/ 1930er Jahren

The Mitropa Cup founded in 1927 was the most important professional football tournament of the interwar period. It was organized by the international Mitropa Cup committee, which was formed of leading protagonists from Central Europe such as Hugo Meisl. This Central European Cup was played out between different combinations of the leading clubs from the participating countries: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Switzerland. German teams did not take part in the Mitropa Cup, because the DFB did not accept professional football teams at that time. With this sport historical background the study shows in which way the Mitropa Cup (as well as other tournaments) profoundly influenced the construction of economic and social space, and how it influenced the perception of the German Mitropa company. While it has been claimed that Meisl and his comrades could build on the sponsorship of the German restaurant and sleeping car company Mitropa, the parallel investigation of railway history through primary sources and sport history proves that no such relationship has existed, and furthermore, because of an international treaty the Mitropa was not allowed to provide services beyond Germany and several defined destinations. Thus, the discursive and spacial significance of both the Mitropa Cup’s football-based definition of Central Europe, and the Mitropa company as one of the two European players in sleeping and restaurant car services (the other being the French-Belgian CIWL/ISG), forms a historical coincidence.