Little things to know about Dortmund.

Dortmund is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine Wesphalia, in Germany. Dortmund is ranked as the eighth largest city in Germany and is part of the Ruhr Area. The Ruhr Area is the largest urban conglomeration in Germany and part of the even larger Whine-Ruhr metropolitan region.

In the south of the city the river Ruhr flows and through the municipal area passes the small river Emscher. Dortmund links to the North Sea by the largest European canal port, the Dortmund-Ems Canal.

Dortmund is well known for its spacious parks and green spaces, such as Westfalenpark and the Rombergpark and is also known under the nickname of “green metropolis”. The extensive municipal territory, which consists of waterways, woodland and agriculture, is highly contrasting with the extended period of coal mining and steel milling. This took place over the spawn of hundreds of years within the city limits.

The city has its gems of medieval culture namely the churches Reinoldikirche and Marienkirche found in the city centre. Dortmund’s centre still has an outline of a medieval city and a ring road traces the former city wall and together with Westen-/Ostenhellweg it is part of a medieval salt trading route. This still remains the major street that cuts across the city center.

When visiting Dortmund, some of the places you should not miss are the moated castle named Haus Bodelschwingh built in the 13th century or the office block build by Friedrich Kullrich in 1899 named Altes Stadthaus and of course, the Romberg Park Gatehouse which now houses an art gallery.

There are also many other important and majestic building that you may visit, such as the U-Tower and the Zollern II/IV Colliery which is now part of the Westphalian Industrial Museum. Also some cultural buildings namely Konzerthaus Dortmund and the opera house Opernhaus Dortmund built in 1966. Also let’s not forget about one of the major art museums Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte and Museum Ostwall

Regarding the culture of the city, it’s been a long tradition of music and theatre. An orchestra was founded in 1887 and it is active even now under the name of Dortmunder Philharmoniker. The first opera house build in this city was destroyed in World War II and reopened in 1966 unde the name of Opernhaus Dortmund. It is kept under operational status by Theater Dortmund together with other locations.

The Dortmund U-Tower, once a brewery, now is the Museum am Ostawall and a centre of creative industries.

The city is home to the Dortmunder Actien Brauerei and is renowned for the Dortmunder style beer.

One of the most successful clubs in German football history is the Borussia Dortmund. The most recent accomplishment of the club was becoming the champions of Bundesliga in the year 2011/2012. In 1966 Borussia Dortmund won the UEFA Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup a year later. Borussia Dortmund now play at Wesfaldenstadion, also known as Signal Iduna Park  which was built to host the 1974 FIFA Football World Cup. It is at the present Germany’s largest football stadium.

For Westphalia, Dortmund is its Olympic centre.