Germany's Ruhr Valley, the Ruhrgebiet, also known as Kohlpott, (coal mine), with 750 years of industrial history and a former image of smoking furnaces, polluted rivers and slag heaps, lies in Nord Rhein Westphalia, a North Western region of the country that encompasses everything from castles, highlands, a volcanic Eifel region and the beauty surrounding the lower River Rhine.
However a metamorphosis has taken place in a Ruhr Valley in the process of transforming its raison d'etre from coal to culture, because although enough industry was retained to remain Europe's largest economic area, the region's mining and much of its heavy industries collapsed.
Abandoned industrial sites, mines and steel works have been redeveloped to house culture in all disciplines, from arts, entertainment and education to artificial lakes, as well as providing homes, stores and offices. While the environmentally damaged and scarred countryside and woodland is being reclaimed and returned to nature.
The annual European Capital of Culture title is awarded to a city which arranges a programme of events connected to the culture of Europe; however for 2010 instead of one city the European Union Council of Ministers uniquely selected an entire area, the Ruhr metropolis of 53 towns and cities.
And Change through Culture, Culture through Change was the motto of Ruhr 2010, Essen for the Ruhr, European Capital of Culture.
An idealistic concept, the initially titled European City of Culture was conceived in 1985 by former Greek singer and actress Melina Mercouri, at the time Minister of Culture for Greece, jointly with her French equivalent Jack Lang as they sat in an airport lounge. Their hope was that the scheme would contribute towards bringing Europeans together by emphasising the range and brilliance of their cultures, as well as mutual values and history.
The Ruhr's time in the spotlight began in a January snow storm, and its over 2,500 diverse cultural and artistic activities, events and projects included a Wonders of the Solar System exhibition in what was in a previous life a gas tank, a flying grass carpet, and perhaps the biggest platform for live performances in the world with The Table is Your Stage.
A summer picnic on a 60 kilometer closed section of the main Dortmund to Duisburg motorway. With 20,000 tables, 3,000,000 guests offered an almost limitless choice of shows, ethnic and regional foodie specialties and presentations by 7,000 groups from diverse cultures, generations and nationalities.
The Essen Zeche Zollverein, known as the most beautiful colliery in the world until closing in 1986 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, is a Bauhaus inspired coal mine. A German design concept combining art and technology with craft, and is one of the Ruhrgebiets regenerated industrial sites.
It includes a world renowned design center, art gallery, exhibition and concert halls, a former coke oven is a summer swimming pool, in winter the pressure machine platform is frozen into a skating rink, and the old coal wash plant is home to the new three level Ruhr Museum, with museums ranging from natural history to archaeological and historical.
Mine shafts and coal faces, where miners worked in dangerous unhealthy conditions, now echo with art and culture enthusiasts.
In October a major project and symbol of European co-operation opened, with joint patrons, Angela Merkel the Chancellor of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy the President of France.
For a few months Images of a Capital - The Impressionists in Paris, an art exhibition was held in Essen's new Museum Folkwang, dedicated to and honouring the very first modern European metropolis, Paris of the second half of the nineteenth century.
In much the same way that the face of the Ruhr continues to be revitalised, during the years after 1850 Paris had gone through a transformation. Industrial sites were moved to the edge of the city, and with its newly constructed buildings, railway stations, boulevards, bridges and squares Paris became the capital of the modern world.
This era of change helped inspire the innovative artistic painting techniques of the Impressionists, a development that succeeded in capturing and communicating character and atmosphere, forming 'impressions' of a scene rather than a painted record on canvas.
Masterpieces by Renoir, Monet, Degas, Manet, Caillebotte and Pissarro amongst other works, together with photographs from the time, covering Parisian life in the new boulevards, parks, cafes, squares, theatres and railway stations were on show. An innovative exhibition layout had been designed to allow visitors to explore 19th Century Paris beginning with a morning in Montmartre, strolling through the city and day into the suburbs and returning to view the period's vital and energetic city night life.
Change through Culture, Culture through Change.
A light shone was upon the revitalized Ruhr Valley in a celebratory party mood. A recognised academic centre dubbed Helicon Valley, because of its leading alternative energy research and involvement with software development, it has theatres, art galleries, museums, cinemas, concert venues, festivals and fairs, things to do, and places to go, as well as the close proximity of neighbouring European countries, which mean the Ruhrgebeit's position as one of Europe's major cultural centres is secure.
As a European Capital of Culture the Ruhr Valley, which shared its title with Pecs in Hungary and Turkey's Istanbul, was a visual testament to a regenerated Ruhrgebiet's cooperation between its own cities, together with its ability, willingness and courage to change. The effects and impression this key area of Europe created have lasted beyond Ruhr 2010, and its one year of successful artistic and cultural events.
Special European Culture Capital 2010 edition Deutsche Post postage stamp, designed by Stefan Klein and Olaf Neuman, Winter Skating at Zeche Zollverein Coking Plant, Essen, by Rainer Halama, via de.Wikipedia
Gustave Caillebotte: 'Le pont de l'Europe', The Europe Bridge, 1876, The Association des Amis du Petit Palais, Geneva, Foto: Studio Monique Bernaz, Geneva
