Architecture's most glamorous prize has turned its attention to train stations. The Prix Versailles awards, which each year celebrate standout new buildings across categories like museums, hotels and restaurants, have named seven of the world's most beautiful new stations for 2026 — and three of them are in Europe.
The European picks are Lyon Part-Dieu in France, Colosseo - Fori Imperiali in Rome, and Monte Sant'Angelo in Naples, Italy. Secretary general Jérôme Gouadain framed the awards around a bigger idea: that stations can be beautiful, sustainable and rooted in their neighbourhoods while still moving people efficiently — something he says is still too rare globally.
Lyon Part-Dieu is the veteran of the trio. After a decade of work by architects AREP and L'AUC, the station has been reborn as a huge multimodal hub that serves not just rail passengers but locals cutting across the city — the prize organisers call it a real community space rather than just a place to catch a train.
Rome's Colosseo - Fori Imperiali station on Metro C made headlines when it opened late last year, and it's easy to see why. The excavation for the line unearthed a trove of archaeological finds, which are now displayed inside the station itself. Prix Versailles describes it as neither a station in a museum nor a museum in a station, but a descent into the city's history — and, brilliantly, an oculus in the design gives transferring passengers a surprise view of the Colosseum itself.
Naples' Monte Sant'Angelo is the most artistic of the lot. Anish Kapoor collaborated with architects Future Systems and AL_A on the subterranean station, which evokes Mount Vesuvius, a cave and the legend of the Cumaean Sibyl. The organisers call it a sculpture the public can walk into.
The rest of the world list rounds out with two stations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Town Hall and Western), the National Museum Station in Melbourne, and the LAX/Metro Transit Center in Los Angeles.
For travellers, this is more than a design nerd's shopping list. Stations like these turn transit time into part of the trip: you can build in half an hour at Colosseo - Fori Imperiali to gawp at ancient ruins on your way to the platform, or see a Kapoor installation without a museum ticket in Naples. And since all three European winners are on working metro or rail lines, there's no detour required — the art and archaeology come free with your ticket.
