This is the key word to amazing changes.

The Ruhr area, Europe’s third largest urban agglomeration, still commonly known as “Ruhrpott”, has left its black and dusty past far behind.

The region along the banks of the Rhine and Ruhr Valley became a land of discovery with unique places and stories waiting for the visitors to come.

Formerly forbidden sites of industrial labour are opened up for new ideas, and flourishing wilderness conquers the heart of the cities. New landmarks and cultural productions turn the artificial landscape into a landscape of art.

No other place in Europe gives such compact and contrasting insight into the actual social transformation.