The Euskotren Basque Railway Museum, a publicly-owned company of the Basque Government, will get the 2023 steam train season underway with ten special rides over Easter. There will be at least two departures a day - at 11.00 a.m. and 4.30 p.m.- - from the museum to Lasao station (Azpeitia).
After Easter, the regular service will run every Saturday until November, with departures at 12.00 noon and 5.30 p.m., and at 12.00 noon on Sundays and bank holidays.
The Basque Railway Museum boasts one of the best railway collections in Europe featuring a whole range of vehicles: electric, diesel and steam locomotives, railcars and different types of wagons.
It also has one of the Basque Country’s most comprehensive sets of machine tools from the former Urola railway repair shop. There is also a display of railway uniforms from the end of the 19th century and one of the best railway clock collections in the world.
The Basque Railway Museum is also home to an exhibition paying tribute to the victims of forced and slave labour during the Spanish Civil War and under Franco’s dictatorship. The permanent exhibition shows how thousands of prisoners of war from 1937, and during much of the dictatorship, and later common criminals, were used to rebuild towns, infrastructure, or to build roads, reservoirs and railways. They included the criminal detachments, first from Gernika and later from Bermeo, who helped clear debris and rebuild the charter town. They also rebuilt the station and part of its railway and extended the line from Sukarrieta to the seafaring town.
The opening hours of the Museum facilities from Easter to 30 June will be:
Tuesdays to Fridays (not bank holidays)
Morning: from 10.00 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.
Afternoons: from 3.00 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Saturdays:
Morning: from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.
Afternoons: 4.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.
Sundays and bank holidays (except Mondays):
Morning: from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.
Information for the general public
• Address of the Basque Railway Museum: calle Julián Elorza, 8 (20730 AZPEITIA-GIPUZKOA).
• Information hotline: 943 15 06 77
• Fax: 943 15 07 46
• Email: museoa@euskotren.eus
• Website: www.euskotren.eus
