ADVERTISING INFORMATION

The face of Augsburg has been shaped by its 2000-year history and within it the styles of all the major architectural periods are to be found. Fine spacious streets, monumental fountains and distinctive public buildings recall the profound thought and planning of the earlier citizens of Augsburg.

Since 1237 the city has displayed the pine cone on its coat-of-arms. The city emblem recalls its numerous representations in stone from Augsburg's era as a Roman capital, being displayed, for an example, on the Roman wall on the Fronhof.

Augsburg Germany , first known twelve years before Christ as a Roman colony (Augusta Vindelicorum), and during the middle ages an imperial city (since 1276), the seat of a bishop, the chief emporium for the trade of Northern Europe with the Mediterranean and the East, and the home of princely merchants and bankers (the Fuggers and Welsers), figures prominently in the early history of the Reformation, and gave the name to the standard confession of the Lutheran Church in 1530, and to the treaty of peace in 1555.

Augsburg became one of the first settlements in present day Germany to come under the influence of Roman civilization and commerce and indeed bears the name of the Emperor Augustus. As the first major city that traders met after the Brenner Pass, it became the major metropolis on the north eastern flank of the Roman Empire. Augsburg enjoyed the status of Free Imperial City within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Around 1500, Augsburg was noted as a printing center; artists such as the Holbein family, Albrecht Dürer, and Titian worked there.

Augsburg was made an imperial free city, independent of the powers which surrounded it. Considering that the Austrian Emperor, Charles the Fifth, once owed Anton Fugger 1 million florins, it's no wonder that the Augsburg merchant princes could command independence from their stronger predatory neighbours and gather the titles of princes and counts as well. They had their finger in almost every pie of the time. They financed new world explorations, the Venetian rare spice trade and any number of wars between kings. In fact, at one point in the 15th Century, the Fugger family so controlled Atlantic trade routes that it effectively ruled South America. A century later, the Welser family literally owned the country of Venezuela.

In 1510, the House of Fugger began the construction of a community of reasonably priced apartments for poor people. Finished in 1519, the walled town contained, as it does today, four gates, six alleys, 53 houses and one church. The size of the apartments varied from two to three rooms with kitchen. All the apartments open onto the carefully laid out streets, giving them the character of homes. The Fuggerei's first tenants in the comfortable quarters were the needy residents of Augsburg, the craftsmen, day-labourers and others who did not want to beg. As time when on, the tenants changed until the area became primarily a place for retired people. But the Fugger family has kept the terms of the lease exactly the same. The rent, per room, in a Fuggerei apartment, is 43 pfennings a year, or a total of one Rheinish Guilder, a Mark 72, or 42 cents.

In the 17th Century, the brick layer Franz Mozart, grandfather of the composer, was a Fuggerei resident and he had to abide by the same hours as the 20th Century renter. Although the development stands in the centre of Augsburg, it closes its gates at 10 each night. Thereafter, each resident must pay the gatekeeper 10 pfennings before midnight or 20 pfennings after midnight to be let in. The rules prohibit nightly amusements or occupations which might disturb the neighbours and the residents is required to pay for anything he breaks or damages.

© Copyright 2000 - 2004  Eurotravelling.net  POWERED BY wORLDTRAVELGATE.NET

Back to Europe