Station of the month: Valdezarza

Valdezarza station, which belongs to line 7, opened to the public on 12 February 1999. It is located under a large park measuring 30,000 square metres, between C/ San Restituto and C/ Arciniega, in the district of Moncloa-Aravaca. Every day around 8,000 passengers pass through the station and in the whole of 2022 just over 1.4 million entries were recorded.

The station is structured on three levels and the platforms are at a depth of 25 metres.  It is fully accessible, with 3 lifts and no less than 12 escalators. It is a large station with two concourses and three entrances (plus the lift). 

Without a doubt, it is a beautiful station, one of the favourites of many "metreros". And if Valdezarza stands out for anything, it is for the two large open spaces, like skylights, which run from the platform to the street and which are crowned on the surface by two steel and glass pyramids. The curves of the station and the escalators visually form an almost sculptural space.

"Legend has it that these large holes were made this way in order to be able to take out the parts of the tunnel boring machine used in the works, known as "La Paloma". If you look at this photo, what do you think?

Indeed, as the project managers said at the time, these large spaces were a mixture of design and necessity.

Regardless of how it emerged from the depths, the tunnel boring machine "La Paloma" became famous because in August 1998 it achieved a world record by excavating 618 metres in a curve, averaging about 14 metres a day.

If we go back a little further, it should be noted that line 7 was the first wide gauge line to come into operation. Opened in July 1974, this line also had the first longer platforms, extended from 60 or 90 metres to 115 metres in length. For years this line operated with a dozen stations, between Las Musas and Avenida de América, until plans were made to extend it to the northwest of the capital.

The major extension of line 7, which added a total of 13 new stations, was carried out in four phases: Avenida de América-Gregorio Marañón, Gregorio Marañón-Canal, Canal-Valdezarza and Valdezarza Pitis.

The section between Canal and Valdezarza, 4,650 metres long, was the third of the four sections. So Valdezarza was the head of line 7 for barely two months, until the opening on 29 March of the same year of the new extension to Pitis.

The work on this section, which began in November 1996 and ended in February 1999, involved an outlay of more than 20 billion pesetas. Here's a photo of the official opening: a train arriving at the Islas Filipinas station to do the honours of cutting the inaugural ribbon.

 We end with a curious fact: can you guess which series have been filmed in this station? If you don't know, we invite you to find out by taking a look at our digital guide Se rodó en Metro [It was filmed in the Metro]: https://www.madrid.org/filmmadrid/ruta-metro/metro-cine/index.html