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Photo: Volker Henze at German Wikipedia, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
"The city of iron". A unique ensemble of five of open cast mining giants placed around an open air arena seating 20,000. Staging festivals, like the annually Melt festival in July, and concerts. Metallica liked the setting, so check out the programme.
Ferropolis, "the city of iron", is an open-air museum of huge mid-20th century industrial machines in Gräfenhainichen, a city between Wittenberg and Dessau, Germany. These can measure up to 30 meters high and 120 meters long and weigh up to 1,980 tons. The area is also used for several events such as opera performances or music festivals, including the Splash! Festival, Melt! Festival, and the "Ferropolis in Flammen" festival, as well as some drifting events such as Drift Masters.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Baroque ensemble of palace, park and town. Built for a Dutch princess who married to Dessau, some roots of the Dutch royal family (House of Orange) are here.
Make a tour to the largest English landscaped park on the continent. Created in the 1770s, it shows finest garden architecture, animated by parks in England like Kew, Stourhead, Stowe. Vistas within the park and to surrounding landscape. The access to the park is free, some manually operated passenger ferries which shortcut the ponds cost €0.60 to €1. Wörlitz Palace, Gothic House, Stein (with artificial volcano) have exhibitions, admission €3 to €5. From Dessau to Wörlitz, it is a good hour of cycling along the "Fürst Franz" bike trail, or take the Dessau-Wörlitzer Eisenbahn from Dessau main station (35 minutes; 10 Euro return).
Dessau-Törten Housing Estate
The townhouse complex on Dessau's southern edge was one of the first examples of Bauhaus architecture and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing. It was built in 1926–1928 to overcome the housing shortage of that period. The living area of each house is quite small (57–75 m²), but each had a garden of 350–400 m² that were intended for self-supply with vegetables. Only a few houses are conserved completely in the original Bauhaus style (e.g. Doppelreihe 35, Mittelring 38), while most façades have been modified according to their owners' taste. Konsumgebäude, a kind of cooperative supermarket at the centre of the complex, was designed by Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius as well. Nowadays it serves as a museum on the history of the architectural complex (guided tours in German, Mar-Oct daily at 15:00).
The Luisium is an English landscape park, which continues into the meadows of Mulde and Elbe. Small palace (rather a villa).
Employment Office
Erstwhile (un)employment office, designed by Walter Gropius and built 1928–1929. Nowadays, it hosts the public order office, driving licence and vehicle registration office of Dessau.