Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord

Our desire to do things differently at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games is nowhere more evident than in the choice of a former blast furnace to host the Closing Ceremony on 27 July. Neither park nor landscape in the traditional sense, Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord comprises 180 hectares of former industrial land, remodelled by architects and reclaimed by nature. Europe's largest artificial diving centre has been created in an old gasometer, disused ore storage bunkers have been transformed into an alpine climbing garden, and a high ropes course has been set up in an old casthouse. Knitting all these together are walkways, cycle paths, and over 700 species of plant. It might be unconventional, but it works: four decades after production ceased, Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord draws around one million visitors a year and has been ranked among the ten most beautiful urban oases in the world.