Information and entertainment – the historic Paffendorf Castle in Bergheim offers both. Inside the manor building, RWE Power shows an exhibit on the excavation and utilization of lignite coal. And thousands of visitors each year are attracted to the 7-hectare palace gardens, its forestry & ...

The Heart and Soul of the Rhenish Lignite Region The surface mining operations in Hambach are located between Jülich (Düren County) and Elsdorf (Rhine-Erft County) right in the center of the Rhenish lignite region. The excavation process commenced in 1978 near Niederzier-Hambach and ...

The surface mining facilities at Garzweiler stretch west of Grevenbroich in Neuss County all the way to the A44 Autobahn (Aachen-Düsseldorf). Here lignite occurs in three layers with a total thickness of about 40 m on average. The coal is located about 40 to 160 m below the surface. It is used ...

In 2005, the former surface mining facilities in Frechen became Marienfeld, the venue for vigil and final mass of World Youth Day XX held jointly by Pope Benedict XVI and a million Christians from 188 nations around the world. Since then Marienfeld has developed into an area for ...