A Walk in Augsburg

Sunday 28 June: We caught an early train from Nuremburg and arrived in Augsburg about 8.30am. It was a short walk to our apartment where we were met by the owner, Claus, who lives upstairs. We are staying in the ground floor of a 16th century house which has been beautifully renovated by Claus who is an architect.

Garden views from our windows

Unfortunately the internet connection is very slow here and that, coupled with the fact that the jigger I use to download photos from our cameras seems to have died, means that I am afraid there will be very few photos in the blog from now on. (In  fact the connection is so slow I couldn't post this last night but now at 5.30am I can! If there is no post from now on, that will be the reason.)

Once we had unpacked, we set out on an Augsburg city walk. The first stop was Fugger House, a huge mansion stretching for a good part of a city block, which was the town residence of one of the wealthiest families in Europe. Jakob Fugger (1459 - 1525) was the son of a merchant family who became a hugely rich financier, lending money to the rulers of Europe, including Emperor Charles V.

Next we visited the Schaezler Palace, which incorporates the State Gallery, where we saw paintings by Holbein the Elder and also the beautiful rococo ballroom where Marie-Antoinette danced one night on her way to France to marry Louis XVI.

From there we walked to the Fuggerei, the oldest social settlement in the world. Jakob Fugger founded this in 1521 for poor but deserving Catholic citizens of Augsburg. They were charged an annual rent of one Rhenish guilder (now 0.88 euros) and required to say three different prayers per day for Jakob and his family. There are now 140 apartments housing 150 people, still financed through the Fugger family endowment. It is a city within a city with its own church and city walls and gates. There is only one gate through which residents can enter after 10pm, where a night watchman will let them in for a small fee.

The Fuggerei was badly damaged by bombing in 1944/45 and, in its World War II air-raid shelter, there is an interesting display about its reconstruction. There is also a museum with a dwelling as it was in the 17th and 18th centuries and a 'model apartment' which shows the current lifestyle of residents.

After lunch at the Fuggerei, we walked back to the main street to the Perlachturm, a tall tower which was built in the 10th century and extended in the 17th century. I climbed the 260 steps to the top where I had a wonderful view over the city and beyond. It was 4pm when I reached the top, just below the bells, and the sound of the chiming was deafening!

On the way back to our apartment, we called in at St Ulrich and St Afra Church. These adjoining churches commemorate the 1555 Peace of Augsburg which recognised the Lutheran and Catholic denominations. Catholic St Afra church has three magnificent altars but there was a service in St Ulrich's so we couldn't look in there. It is just around the corner from us so there will be other opportunities.

The three magnificent altars in St Ulrich's Church