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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Tours Station, located in the Indre-et-Loire department, is an emblematic monument built between 1896 and 1898 under the direction of architect Victor Laloux. This project aimed to merge the equipment of the Paris-Orléans and Chemins de fer de l'Etat railway companies, replacing a first station built in 1846. The building, which was listed as a historical monument in 1984, is distinguished by its stone façade decorated with allegorical statues and painted earthenware panels, as well as its metal structure and glass windows.

The station, operated by SNCF, is a major railway hub, served by TGVs and TER, although its status as a terminal limits certain traffic. Between 1896 and 1898, the works incorporated decorative elements signed by artists such as Jean-Antoine Injalbert and Eugène Martial Simas. The surrounding railway areas, once vast, have been partially urbanized to form neighborhoods like Sanitas.

In 2013, renovations related to the arrival of the tramway changed the station's western access, while earlier works (2006) restored its façade and interiors, including the installation of gold sheets originally planned by Laloux. The station, frequented by more than 6 million passengers annually in 2022, remains a multimodal hub connected to urban and long distance transport.

Its history also reflects the evolution of railway infrastructure, such as the abandonment in 1970 of the Sables d'Olonne line, replaced by a connection to Joué-lès-Tours. Today, the station of Tours-Centre coexists with that of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, the latter avoiding the reversal of the trains towards the Atlantic.

Architecturally, the building combines four main materials: stone (facade and statues), iron (structure), cast iron (ornaments) and glass (glasses). The statues, representing allegories of cities like Bordeaux and Nantes, and the faience panels illustrating tourist landscapes, underline its artistic and functional character.

The station is also an intermodal node, connected to tramway, urban buses (Blue Fill) and regional networks (Rémi). Its economic role includes freight traffic, and its heritage, protected since 1984, bears witness to the golden French railway age.

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