In 1896, the first underground system in continental Europe opened in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The original line – now incorporated into the present-day Budapest Metro as the M1 or yellow line – was 2.3 miles long, and ran from Vörösmarty Square in the city centre out to the Zoo. It was the world’s first electric underground system, running on an overhead cable, as opposed to the much more common live rail that was to become popular nearly everywhere else.

The first line of the Chemin de Fer Métropolitain in Paris, known ever since as the Métro, opened in 1900. It connected Porte de Vincennes with Porte Maillot, and naturally went on to be known as line 1. The Métro is many people’s favourite European underground system, notable for its elegant Art Nouveau entrances and signage, designed by Hector Guimard. The classic entrance consists of a graceful green cast-iron frame set with stained-glass, with glass panels often rising in a dragonfly’s-wing pattern overhead, as at Les Abbesses (on line 12).

Such is the compact nature of the centre of Paris that no building is more than 500 metres from a Métro station.

Over the pond and beyond

In 1904, America’s first extensive underground system opened in New York, connecting City Hall and 145th Street, and consisting of 28 stations covering a distance of nine miles. The New York City Subway was soon extended to reach the districts of Brooklyn and the Bronx, and has since gone on to become the largest underground rail network in the world, linking no fewer than 468 stations.

The Buenos Aires underground in Argentina, which opened in 1913, was the first in the southern hemisphere. Asia’s first subway system, the Ginza line in Tokyo, opened in 1927, and is now marked in orange on the modern Tokyo tube map.

With the opening of the Moscow underground in 1935 – the first in Russia – a new era in station design was ushered in. Soviet planners decreed that where Western underground stations were often dingy, depressing temples to capitalism, with their obligatory plastering of advertisements, the Metro stations of the USSR would be workers’ palaces. The astonishingly lavish décor was intended to make the point that, while the West reserved such luxuries for privileged individuals, in the communist world, they would be showered on the labouring masses.

The underground stations of Moscow, St Petersburg and other major cities of the former Soviet Union retain their magnificence today. Marble pillars recede in palatial perspective, the floors are immaculately swept granite, and lighting is from huge chandeliers that give the impression that hurrying for the Sokolnicheskaya train is like gliding across the ballroom at Versailles. Some stations feature Byzantine-style coloured glass mosaic ceilings, while bronze statues of the founding fathers of the Soviet Union adorn others.

This style was imitated when the underground system of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, was opened in 1973. Monumental architecture, together with murals depicting events in the life of the state’s founder, Kim Il-Sung, are the order of the day, although trains are reconditioned cast-offs from the former East Germany.

Western visitors permitted entry to North Korea are generally treated to a ride on the underground between two stops, Yonggwang and Puhung. Uniquely, Pyongyang’s stations do not have geographical names, but are given the names of political concepts. Puhung means “Rehabilitation”, while Yonggwang is “Glory”. Martial music and patriotic hymns play almost unceasingly over the public address system, occasionally being interspersed with exhortations to passengers to be vigilant for traitors in their midst.

A new elegance

It was the Paris Métro that pioneered the practice of making underground stations into artistic and cultural showcases. The stop for the Louvre, for example, is walled in marble, and features glass cases containing both original sculptures and replicas of works on show in the museum above. Varenne on line 13 is the stop for the Rodin Museum, and not surprisingly features a replica of that sculptor’s most famous work, The Thinker.

Devotees of the the fine arts will also enjoy the underground systems in Hong Kong, Brussels and Lisbon, where contemporary sculptures feature in many of the stations, and Athens, where classical urns and vases are elegantly spotlit in glass display cases. Archaeological exhibits also feature in Athens and Oporto. In Vienna, a 13th-century chapel excavated beneath St Stephen’s Cathedral can be viewed from the entrance hall of Stephansplatz underground station.

Stockholm is perhaps most dedicated to the cause of refreshing the weary traveller with diverting artworks, with 90% of the stations featuring them. The Blue Line in Stockholm should not be missed. Rather than being designed in traditional right angles, the station walls have been left in the uneven, rough-cast lines in which they were originally blasted out, and then painted in fairground oranges and greens, giving them the magical appearance of fairy grottos. As the trains glide through the tunnels, they pass mountainside tableaux, lily ponds and gardens. It is only with the greatest reluctance that the first-timer will leave the Tunnelbana network and ascend back to street level.

• The top ten most heavily used metro systems in the world are, in descending order: Tokyo, Moscow, Seoul, New York City, Mexico City, Paris, London, Osaka, Hong Kong and St Petersburg.