Euskirchen (; Ripuarian: Öskerche) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating back over 700 years, having been granted town status in 1302. As of December 2007, it had a population of 55,446. Its local football club is called TSC Euskirchen. Culture Parts of the ancient town wall, and three of its defensive towers, are still standing. Tourists are also attracted to Euskirchen due to the proximity of two large cities, Cologne and Bonn, to the northeast, and the hills of the Eifel region to the south. It is also the birthplace of Emil Fischer, born 1852, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1902. The local theatre in The Emil-Fischer-Gymnasium offers a wide variety of cultural events. The City Forum and the Parkhotel Euskirchen also contribute to the town's cultural offerings. The word Euskirchen means Kirche auf der Aue (“church on riverside lowland”). The Martinskirche is the oldest church in Euskirchen. Biggest local sports clubs in Euskirchen are the TSC Euskirchen, LGO Euskirchen/Erftstadt and Lauf Club Euskirchen. Sports facilities are the Erftstadion, gym Ohm-Mirgel, Jahnhalle, Willi-Maurer-Halle, gym Emil-Fischer-Gymnasium, Sportanlage Im Auel (since 2021 Heinz-Flohe-Sportpark) and gym Marienschule. Twin towns – sister cities Euskirchen is twinned with: Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom (1986) Charleville-Mézières, France (1964) Industry and Commerce Euskirchen has a diversified and balanced economic structure and can therefore provide jobs for a large catchment area. Euskirchen is a rural town with large, open fields serving agricultural purposes. Sugar beets are widely cultivated, and Euskirchen has been home to a sugar factory (Pfeifer & Langen) since 1879. Until a few decades ago, a further important branch of industry was cloth manufacturing, but this was unable to survive due to competition from large international corporations. Well-known industrial enterprises (e.g. Procter & Gamble, Miele) are located within the town's industrial and commercial sites. These can also offer attractive possibilities to new enterprises. The town's central location and good road and rail links to the international transport network are important factors in this context. The two largest industrial and commercial sites in Euskirchen, accounting for a total of 21,000 jobs between them, are: IPAS (“IndustriePark Am Silberberg”) with four million m², of which 3.6 m² million lie within the boundary of the town of Euskirchen EURO-Park (located between Euskirchen and Roitzheim) with 1.5 million m².