Augsburg things to do Germany

By the tenth century Augsburg was already one of Europe's most important cities. A scant century later it was given its own coinage privileges, and in 1156 Barbarossa confirmed its status as a Freie Reicbsstadt (Free Imperial City). But its golden age was undeniably the 15th through the 17th centuries, when it was one of the richest and most prosperous towns on the Continent, due to its role as a center of weaving and gold and silversmithing, and thanks to its two leading families, the Fuggers and the Welsers. In 1500 Augsburg had 50,000 inhabitants (more than Paris or London), 2,500 weaving shops, and was exporting a staggering quantity of linen and fustian annually. The Fuggers are still one of Germany's richest families, with vast realestate arid forestry holdings. The Fugger and Welser legacy is architecturally omnipresent in Augsburg as well.
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It begins with the huge Fugger palace at Maximilianstrasse 36, which houses the Fuggerkeller restaurant and a branch of the Fugger Bank; continues with a whole array of Fugger and Welser mansions dotted around town; and culminates with the picturesque Fuggerei, the world's oldest welfare housing project, where an indigent family can still live in dignity for the equivalent of one dollar a year.

Of the many famous visitors to Augsburg during its 20 centuries, one of the most renowned was Martin Luther, summoned here in 1518 to recant his 95 theses before the papal legate, Cardinal Thomas de Vio. Luther stayed in the Carmelite monastery of St. Anne on Annagasse, now the city's main shopping street. St. Anne's became Protestant a mere seven years after his visit. His booklined cell on the second floor of the cloister is one of its treasures, along with portraits of him and Saxon Duke Friedrich the Wise by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The church, which is a fiveminute walk northeast of the railway station, also contains the private burial chapel of the Fuggers. Two of the reliefs on their sepulcher were designed by Albrecht Dtirer.

Augsburg information Germany

The city played a key role in the Reformation. There was the Augsburg Confession of 1530, the offiCial statement of creed by the Lutheran churches. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg, a temporary settlement of the religious conflict in the Holy Roman Empire, was shattered in 1618 by the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. Miraculously, the city escaped that murderous conflict virtually unscathed. It was less fortunate in World War II. The big February 1944 air raid, aimed at the Messerschmitt plant and at MaschinenfabrikAugsburgNtirnberg (MACN), where Rudolf Diesel had developed his engine, left some ugly rents in the historic fabric. A few remain and others have been mended with patches of challengeable ,aesthetic value. Nonetheless, few other large German cities have as much to offer visitors in terms of architectural splendor, art treasures, living history, or medieval and Renaissance patina. The best way to see them is to walk. Sturdy shoes are recommended because most of the historic streets are paved with cobblestones, over which, legend has it, Napoleon tripped on visits in 1805 and 1809.

Rathaus and Rathausplatz Augsburg's epicenter is the Rathausplatz, with its 16thcentury fountain and statue of Augustus Caesar. The greatest showpiece here is the Rathaus, built between. 1615 and 1620 by Elias Holl to replace a Gothic town hall that had stood for 300 years. A palatial eight-story structure that towers over the square, it is the most dazzling example of secular Renais sance architecture north of the Alps. Next to it stands the Perlachturm, once an 11 thcentury watchman's turret, then a church belfry, and now a largely decorative campanile raised to its present height of 230 feet strictly for its aesthetic appeal in 1616. The 35 bell carillon chimes every day at noon.

The air raid left the Rathaus a gutted shell, the greatest interior loss being that of its magnificent Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), a 6,000squarefoot, threestory reception hall with painted cedarwood ceiling, frescoes, intricately carved paneling, and lavish goldleaf decor. The building was patched up hurriedly by 1947, but it was not until 1980 that Augsburgers set out in earnest to raise the money and restore the Golden Hall to its former splendor. It reopened in 1985, the city's 2,000th anniversary.

Die Ecke, just behind the Rathaus at EliasHollPlatz 2, began as a tavern in 1492 and claims such local luminaries as Hans Holbein the Elder, Hans Burgkmair, Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Diesel, and Brecht among its former customers. It is now one of Augsburg's better eateries, especially for game dishes.

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