It's fairly hard to imagine that an extremely wealthy and influential family decided to dedicate a…read morecluster of housing, meant to mimic a small city, to those living in poverty in early 16th century Europe. Well, the Fugger family did just that and its 'experiment' in social housing has lasted for almost five hundred years. Visitors are able to view a 'model dwelling' decorated as it would have been during the genesis of this project. In an adjacent room a film (auf Deutsch) about the Fugger family and how it came to create the Fuggerei runs on a loop. Pamphlets at the entrance are offered in a multiplicity of languages (including Chinese and Japanese), so non-German speakers are also able to gain a solid understanding of what's what. The on-site WW II bunker is quite worth a visit. One sees how the Fuggerei was severely damaged during the war and how quickly and determinedly those in charge decided to rebuild. While I very much enjoyed visiting the Fuggerei, I was constantly aware of walking around a complex in which people live. One is cautioned to be respectful and to not 'take pictures'. It's hard not to look at the facades of all the buildings when one walks by them. Well, it's hard for me, at least. Being a fan of architecture, I walked the streets of Augsburg en route to the Fuggerei pretty much doing the same thing. I happened to walk past a small boy kicking a soccer ball around, presumably, the front of his Fugger flat. He scowled at me when I passed him. That's when I decided it was time for me to go. There is information regarding who is eligible to live at the Fuggerei (adherents to the Catholic faith) and how much one pays (0,88 euro annually & three prayers daily, apparently). What I wasn't able to find out was how one is picked to live on premises. Not that I'd qualify...

This is a must-see for any visitor to Augsburg. I learned so much about Augsburger history, German…read morehistory, European history, social history...HISTORY. The story of the Fuggerei - a "social settlement" started during the late Middle Ages/early Renaissance by Jakob Fugger to help the poor and disenfranchised get their feet back under them and become self-sufficient citizens during a time where social Darwinism and caste-like class stratification were ravaging Europe - is one that will touch your heart and provide leagues of depth to your big picture understanding of life. It doesn't take long to come here, but the impact will stay with you for life. Added benefit: Almost everything that's written down is also translated into English.

After hearing about the treasures in a magnificent baroque palace very near our hotel, we decided…read moreto invest part of our Saturday in Augsburg there. The first disappointment was not being able to buy the tickets with our credit card - another sign that those in charge of some tourist attractions in Germany are still very provincial. We opted for the audio guide - a big mistake. Audio guides should be a help for visitors to see things they might miss, but this guide was full of names and dates without nearly enough info about the actual pictures we were looking at or the rooms we walked through. Too much of the art museum seemed to be in a state or renovation with poorly lit paintings in the gallery part and a weird kind of open heating system spewing out smoke in the monastery part attached to the palace. Distracted by all the oddities, we ended up missing one of the most famous paintings: Albrecht Dürer's portrait of Jakob Fugger, a very rich merchant from Augsburg's time in the limelight in the 16th century. Only from the outside could we appreciate the length of the structure with the palace-monastery extension taking up an entire big block. At least the rococo ballroom with its mirrors and gilt walls was impressive, maybe especially so since we were there alone on a brilliantly sunny Saturday in early February. At least we could imagine the room also impressing Marie Antoinette, who evidently danced here for the palace-warming party a few hundred years ago. After an hour, we'd seen the whole place but then had to wait for someone to open up the room where we had to leave our bags. The café seemed more a parody with the couple of small tables and very uncomfortable looking chairs in a room next to the bookstore/ticket office, so we chose instead to rest our feet and our ears in the sunshine outside gazing at the gardens, which themselves seemed somewhat modest for a magnificent baroque palace, but then we had lowered our expectations sufficiently by the end of our hour in the Schaetzlerpalais.