As the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, the future of the longest remaining section of the wall that became a symbol of the Cold War has been secured.

The 1.3 kilometre-long East Side Gallery, near the centre of the city on Mühlenstraße, had faced the possibility of demolition because of a construction boom in the area. But the Berlin Wall Foundation, which runs other memorials and museums in the city, has now taken control of what’s known as “the world’s longest open-air gallery.”

This stretch of wall was transformed after 1989 when 118 artists were invited to paint on its concrete surface. Their paintings express the euphoria and tremendous hopes for a better, freer future. One of the murals, by Russian painter Dmitri Vrubel, depicts a kiss between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German leader Erich Honecker.

The East Side Gallery is one of the city’s most visited landmarks. Foundation director Axel Klausmeier describes it as “a symbol of joy.”