Austria will formally open a new police station on Wednesday in Adolf Hitler's former house, in the hope of deterring today's ascendant far-right extremists from making the pilgrimage to the Nazi dictator's birthplace.
The authorities hope that its transformation will bring to an end a long and delicate debate over what to do with the site, in a country often criticised for not taking full responsibility for its role in the Holocaust.
After a 20-million-euro ($23-million) refurbishment finished three years behind schedule, the unassuming building where one of history's most notorious figures was born in the centre of the town of Braunau-am-Inn is all but unrecognisable.
The roughcast yellow walls of the 17th-century home near the German border, where the future Fuehrer was born on April 20, 1889, have been whitewashed over by the Austrian architecture firm Marte.
A police sign hangs above the entrance, while the pavement still bears a memorial stone with the inscription: "For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn."
