article_snippet: (CNN)Thirty years ago, a journey across Europe meant a passport full of stamps, a wallet full of different currencies and plenty of time spent waiting in line to be glared at by border officials.
article_snippet: That all began to change in June 1985, when the continent's countries began signing up to the Schengen agreement -- a deal that lifted frontier controls between cooperating neighbors.
article_snippet: Today, 20 years after it came into force, with more than 26 states now participating, Schengen has completely altered the experience of traversing Europe.
article_snippet: The result is a fascinating gallery of images that charts the unusual architecture of places whose fate has been intertwined with Europe's ever-evolving political and economic allegiances.
article_snippet: Before, when I was young, if you traveled from Spain to Germany you had to cross three countries and take three currencies," Ignacio Evangelista recalls.
article_snippet: Europe's richer countries tend to maintain old posts, while less wealthier states seem content to let Europe's richer countries deteriorate, Ignacio Evangelista says.
article_snippet: I thought, before the Schengen agreement, They had no future.
highlights_snippet: Schengen agreement came into force 20 years ago, lifting border controls between participating European nations .
  