A monumental steel construction was erected at the heart of the cast steel company Bochumer Verein für Bergbau und Gußstahlfabrikation in 1903. For more than 60 years, the impressive hall with its 9.000 square meters, the so-called Gas Power Centre, supplied the plant and the urban settlements with energy. In 2003 – 100 years after its completion – the Jahrhunderthalle was handed over to its new destiny as a central festival theatre of the Ruhrtriennale and as an »assembly hall for art« (Gerard Mortier).