Every design for Düren

Düren was first recorded in 747, when Frankish kings held court here and Charlemagne stayed more than once, and markets have been part of its life ever since. In the 16th century the relic of Saint Anne turned it into a destination for pilgrims, and the Annakirmes, the great funfair that grew out of that tradition, still belongs to the town's regular calendar alongside the Rhineland carnival.

The Leopold-Hoesch-Museum tells the other half of the story. The Hoesch family, like the Schoellers, brought paper, textiles and metalworking to Düren, and the Papiermuseum Düren shows how deeply paper shaped this town on the Rur, between Aachen and Cologne at the northern edge of the Eifel. In 1944 an Allied air raid destroyed almost all of it; no town in Germany was hit harder in the war, and what stands today was rebuilt from those ruins. The Annasäule and the Stadtmuseum Düren keep the older memories within reach.

Cheer for the Powervolleys, count down to the Annakirmes or know the river paths out towards the Eifel, and you already know why this town is worth taking with you.