Gasometer Oberhausen

Built in 1929 to store blast furnace gas, the Gasometer is a steel cylinder about sixty-eight metres across and a hundred and seventeen high, the largest gas holder in Europe when built. It stopped working in 1988 and reopened in 1994 as an exhibition space whose single vast interior suits installations impossible elsewhere: Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Big Air Package of 2013 was a fabric structure ninety metres tall standing inside it, and later shows have hung a twenty-metre model of the Earth and of the Moon under the roof. A lift runs to the roof platform with views across the Ruhr.

History

The industrial group Gutehoffnungshütte built the Gasometer beside the Rhine-Herne Canal, starting on 27 February 1927, and it entered service on 15 May 1929 with a capacity of 347,000m³. A fire during repairs on 10 June 1946 led to its complete dismantling, and reconstruction began in 1949 using the original pressure disc and roof (Wikipedia, Gasometer Oberhausen).

What's there

• The single interior - a cylinder 117 metres high used as one exhibition room.
• The large installations - works at a scale no conventional gallery allows.
• The roof platform - a lift to the top with views across the Ruhr.
• The 1929 structure - the largest gas holder in Europe when it was built.

When to go

Year-round when an exhibition is running; the Gasometer closes for months between shows to install the next one, so check before travelling.

Things to know

It closes entirely between exhibitions, sometimes for long periods. The interior is unheated and cold. There is one show at a time and nothing else inside.

Nearby

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord lies south; Essen is east.

Key facts