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Origin and history

The station of Austerlitz, originally named Orléans station, was built in 1840 by architect Felix-Emmanuel Callet near the quay of Austerlitz, in homage to the Napoleonic victory of 1805. This first pier, located on Rue Neuve-de-la-Gare, marked the opening of the Paris-Juvisy line, extended towards Orléans in 1843. The station was enlarged in 1846, but its major reconstruction took place between 1862 and 1867 under the direction of architect Pierre-Louis Renaud and engineer Charles Sévène.

The new station, with a 280-metre-long metal hall (the second largest in France after Bordeaux), was built by the Schneider Creusot workshops. Its architecture includes a Belle Époque style administrative building on Valhubert Square, as well as departure and arrival pavilions. The hall even served as a balloon manufacturing workshop during the siege of Paris in 1870. In 1900, the station temporarily lost its status as head of line to the Orsay station, before returning to it in 1939.

In the 20th century, the station underwent major changes: electrification in 1926 (the first station in Paris without steam trains), partial destruction during the Second World War, and the creation of an underground station in 1969 for RER C. The commissioning of the Atlantic LGV in 1990 reduced its mainline traffic, but it remains crucial for the Night Intercity and Southwest connections. Since 1997, part of the station has been listed as a Historic Monument, including its hall and facades.

Since 2011, the station has undergone an ambitious renovation (planned until 2025), with the progressive coverage of the tracks and the construction of a monumental marquise. The Paris Rive Gauche project aims to integrate the station into a modern neighbourhood, with offices, housing and shops. In the long term, it could host TGVs via the future LGV Paris-Orléans-Clermont-Ferrand-Lyon, strengthening its role in the national railway network.

Culturally, the station has been used as a setting for several films, such as A Long Engagement Sunday (2004) or Hors normes (2019). Close to the Jardin des Plantes and the Pitié-Salpêtrière, it embodies a mixture of industrial history, collective memory (records of 1941-1942) and contemporary dynamism, with an annual attendance exceeding 20 million travelers.

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