Leverkusen

Leverkusen is the city aspirin built. Around Carl Leverkus's dye works on the Rhine grew the Bayer company, and in 1897 in its laboratories Felix Hoffmann synthesised acetylsalicylic acid in stable form — Aspirin, the most famous medicine ever branded, went out from here to the world's bathroom cabinets. The company gave the city its name's fame, its skyline — the illuminated Bayer Cross, for decades the largest advertising sign on earth, still turns over the rooftops — and its improbable garden: the Japanischer Garten, laid out for director Carl Duisberg in the 1910s, is one of Germany's loveliest Japanese gardens, koi ponds and teahouse amid the chemical works' greenery.

Bayer also built the city's cultural constitution. The Erholungshaus, the company's own concert and theatre house opened in 1908, anchors Bayer Kultur — one of the oldest and largest corporate arts programmes anywhere, bringing international orchestras, chamber music, dance and young artists' series to a factory town's doorstep for over a century. The annual Leverkusener Jazztage add star-studded autumn nights.

And then there is football: Bayer 04 Leverkusen, long teased as perennial runners-up, answered everything in 2024 by winning the Bundesliga unbeaten — the first team in the league's history to do so — adding the cup for good measure. Schloss Morsbroich contributes a Baroque museum of contemporary art; the Rhine flows past, unimpressed and useful. A company town, yes — with uncommon taste.