Under communism it fell into ruin, but 25 years after the Berlin Wall came down, the small eastern German town of Goerlitz now has ambitions of giving Hollywood a run for its money.
Goerlitz's historic facades and venues have already featured in acclaimed films such as Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and Stephen Daldry's adaptation of German novelist Bernhard Schlink's The Reader.
The town hopes to cash in on the lucrative film industry by promoting its evocative streets that run the gamut of styles, from Gothic and Renaissance to baroque and art deco, to help revive its flagging economic fortunes. To facilitate filming in the town of about 54,000 inhabitants, which sits on Germany's border with Poland, it has nominated a point person to co-ordinate matters related to the movie world.
"Under communist East Germany, the town centre buildings were all grey, dilapidated," says Kerstin Gosewisch, who holds the position. "People preferred to live on the outskirts in new buildings, well heated and with toilets in the apartment and not on the landing. After the fall of the wall, people from the west arrived and marvelled at the remnants of the town."
Spared damage by Allied bombing during the second world war, Germany's easternmost town was sliced in two after the end of the Third Reich by the German-Polish border. After Germany's 1990 reunification, about 78,000 people lived in Goerlitz. But it has seen an exodus since, as people sought higher wages in the western regions.
Through it all, its atmospheric courtyards, mouldings, historic arcades and archways have remained a constant. The town - which residents have dubbed as "Goerliwood" - has already been chosen to depict New York, Berlin, Paris and Heidelberg, among others, in movies, says tour guide Karina Thiemann.
Initially known only to German filmmakers, Goerlitz has gradually made its name among international producers, bolstered by its proximity to the mythic Studio Babelsberg outside Berlin. In 2003 it provided the backdrop for Frank Coraci's version of Jules Verne's classic adventure tale, Around the World in 80 Days. Other movies filmed there include Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, the film version of popular novel The Book Thief, and George Clooney's second world war-era art caper, The Monuments Men.