Essen becomes EU cultural capital for 2010

ESSEN, Germany, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Essen, a city best known as the capital of Germany's industrial Ruhr Valley, is the European Capital of Culture for 2010.

German President Horst Kohler and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso inaugurate the city's year in the spotlight Saturday at the Zollverein Industrial Complex, a former coal mine and coking plant that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"Essen and the entire Ruhr Basin, with its old heavy-industry complexes, remind us of the beginnings of the European integration project: half a century ago, the first steps were taken towards the creation of the European Union, in the form of peaceful cross-border cooperation in the coal and steel sectors," Barroso said in a statement.

Pecs, Hungary, and Istanbul, Turkey, are the other EU Capitals of Culture for the year.

Essen, a centuries-old city, has a Gothic cathedral and some old buildings. Its major cultural attractions are more modern, like the Bauhaus-style Shaft XII at the Zollverein and Villa Hugel, the grandiose 269-room mansion industrialist Alfred Krupp built in the 19th century.

The city also boasts a theater in a former factory and a venue suitable for rock concerts in a former coal mine.