Every design for Pforzheim

Pforzheim began as a Roman settlement called Portus, and as the chief place of a civitas in the province of Germania superior it was an administrative centre long before anyone spoke of gold.

Grief is part of how people here understand their city. On the evening of 23 February 1945 an RAF raid destroyed most of the town and killed nearly a third of its population, and the Pforzheim that rose again over the following twenty years still shows the architecture of those post-war decades. Alongside that memory sits a sense of pride: the jewellery and watch-making industry made Pforzheim the Goldstadt, and the city lies where the Enz, the Nagold and the Würm meet, which is why it is called the three-valleys town and the Gateway to the Black Forest. The Stadtmuseum Pforzheim, the Städtische Galerie and the Burgruine Kräheneck carry the long story further back.

Coming home means coming down into the valley where the Nagold meets the Enz, with the Black Forest opening up behind the last houses.