From the 80's until today Europe has developed numerous laws to reduce and restore the adverse effects of emitting hazardous pollutants to soil and the environment. Every country has gathered very valuable information and published their work in the national language (normally not accessible and not known by other countries in Europe), on how to manage contaminated sites originated by industrial settlements or by accidents. With the aim of sharing best practices of soil restoration and management of contaminated sites among European countries and to raise awareness of the enormous efforts made to succeed in such difficult commitment, the experts of the EIONET Soil working group on contaminated sites and brownfields on March 2015 agreed to gather their country's interesting cases and successful stories of recovery of contaminated areas;  Thirteen countries comprising 21 European Regions have presented a total of 28 cases that illustrate the recovery of polluted sites or brownfields into recreational areas; cases of sustainable remediation, polluters who present projects to remediate the subsoil, development of innovative technologies, innovative funding mechanisms etc. These stories have been compiled in the present report as contribution of this group to the International Year of Soils.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen