Have you ever in-line skated on a runway?

When the Nazi-era Tempelhof airport in Berlin was transformed into an urban park in May 2010, some residents didn't know what to make of its sprawling ocean of concrete and grass.

But the park is coming into its own as one of Europe's more distinctive urban experiences and has become a popular place for concerts and cultural events, like the Bread and Butter fashion trade show in July. Park officials say that on a sunny day it attracts as many 50,000 people.

The airport has been left very much like it was in 1948, when it served as the gateway for the Berlin Airlift, in which Western powers, led by the United States, provided hundreds of tons food and fuel to a desperate city cut off by the Soviet blockade.

The control tower still looms over a huge building complex that was once the largest in Europe, and runways stretch to the horizon. Where planes once left for distant lands, people now cycle, run and skate.

A companion video can be seen at nytimes.com/intransit.