Declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2001, the former industrial plant of Zollverein is one of the most important cultural assets in the world. Here, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an important center linked to the extraction and processing of coal developed, which determined the rise and development of numerous industries of the time in Central Europe.
The year 1993, if on the one hand marked the closure of the site, on the other it triggered a cultural redevelopment that led to the development of the tertiary sector. The emblem of this "new era" is the Zeche Zollverein, also known as the Ruhr Eiffel Tower, the subject of important redevelopment works such as the construction of the new Parkhaus Zollverein with the aim of facilitating access to the public and tourists. of the coal mine and the adjacent coking plant.