Düren, District capital in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Düren is a district capital in North Rhine-Westphalia, situated along the Rur between Aachen and Cologne. The settlement stretches at the northeastern edge of the Eifel, where the hills meet the Lower Rhine Bay, and is shaped by industrial plants, residential neighborhoods, and green spaces along the river.
The place was first documented as Villa Duria in 748, when Pippin the Short held a royal assembly here. Later, Charlemagne used the settlement as a base for campaigns against the Saxons, and during the Middle Ages it developed into a trading post at the river crossing.
Papermaking has shaped local industry for centuries, and several production sites still document this tradition today. At the Leopold Hoesch Museum, visitors can view contemporary artworks displayed in rotating exhibitions that often reference the industrial past of the region.
The town center is easily reachable on foot from the train station, and several parking areas are located near the center. Most shops and public facilities cluster around the market square, while the riverside promenade offers walks along the water.
The district sits precisely at the geological boundary between the flat Lower Rhine lowlands and the wooded Eifel highlands. Beneath large parts of the surrounding area lie massive brown coal deposits, extracted for decades through open-pit mining that has markedly changed the landscape.
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