Cherbourg station
railway station in France
Gare de Cherbourg is the railway station of the city of Cherbourg, Normandy, France. It is the western terminus of the Mantes-la-Jolie–Cherbourg railway.
History
On 5 September 1850, the president Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte visited Cherbourg and demanded the continuation of work on the Arsenal. He also demanded the construction of a railway line linking Cherbourg to Paris. The construction of the line was approved in 1852. The station was opened on 4 August 1858 by Napoleon III who arrived on the imperial train from Paris.
At the time of opening, the trip to Paris took ten hours and cost 22.85 FrF for a third class ticket and 41.55 FrF for a first class ticket.
Queen Victoria visited the city and its station the same day and took part in the grandiose celebrations. The third dock of the Cherbourg Arsenal, 1,200,000m³ in size, was opened and a steam ship immediately sailed from it.
At the end of the day, a statue of Napoleon I on a horse by Armand Le Véel was unveiled.
“Cherbourg station” enters the record as railway station in France. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cherbourg, station and railway can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Cherbourg station” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cherbourg, station and railway provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2677692. Authority coordinates are 49.633, -1.621. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1850, 1852 and 1858.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cherbourg station”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cherbourg station primary sources, Cherbourg station archive and Cherbourg research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Cherbourg station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.