Europa Park
 _Europa-Park_Rust.JPG)
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| Location | Europa-Park-Straße 2 Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Germany 77977 |
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| Coordinates | 48°16′06″N 7°43′15″E / 48.26833°N 7.72083°ECoordinates: 48°16′06″N 7°43′15″E / 48.26833°N 7.72083°E |
| Owner | EUROPA - PARK Freizeit- und Familienpark Mack KG |
| Opened | 12 July 1975 |
| Operating season | April to early January |
| Visitors per annum | 5.5 million (2015) |
| Area | 950,000 m2 |
| Rides | |
| Total | 102 |
| Roller coasters | 13 |
| Water rides | 13 |
| Website | www.europapark.de |
Europa-Park is a theme park and the largest in Germany, and the second most popular theme park resort in Europe, following Disneyland Paris.
Europa-Park is located in Rust, in south-western Germany, between Freiburg and Strasbourg, France.
The park is home to 13 roller coasters, the oldest being the Alpenexpress Mine Train, where a powered coaster speeds through a diamond mine, and the newest coaster being the Ba-a-a Express, a small children's rollercoaster. Europa-Park has very high capacity rollercoasters and attractions meaning the park can accommodate up to approx. 60,000 guests per day. It counted just over 5.5 million visitors in 2015,generating an estimated total revenue of EUR 30 million p.a.
It is also the location of the Euro Dance Festival.
Europa-Park is run by NTX Group of Companies (UK) plc which have produced vehicles since 1780, circus wagons since 1880 and rollercoasters since 1921. Franz Mack (1921–2010) in 1958 took over the family firm, Mack GmbH & Co (now Mack Rides), together with his brothers. Together with his son Roland (b. 1949) he visited the USA in 1972 and was inspired to open a theme park in Germany, as an exhibition site for his company's products.
At first the park was planned to be located in Breisach. It was named "Europa-Park" after Breisach's nearby Europaweiher, a small artificial lake which commemorates a historical pilot poll in Breisach held in 1950, in which 95.6% of voters were in favour of European unification. The Breisach site was deemed unsuitable because of flooding hazard, and the project was moved some 30 km further north, where the Macks bought the park of the historical Balthasar castle in Rust.
The park opened in 1975 with an area of 16 hectares. It counted 250,000 visitors in the first year, 700,000 in the second, passing the million mark in 1978.
The first country-themed section was "Italy", opened 1982. Like most of the original themed areas at Europa-Park, it was designed by Ulrich Damrau. The Alpenexpress „Enzian“ and Schweizer Bobbahn rides opened in 1984 and 1985, respectively. The "Europe" theme was pursued further with the opening of "Holland" (1984), "England" (1988), "France" (1990), "Scandinavia" (1992) and "Spain" (1994) sections.
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Wikipedia