The Fuggerei

On our way to Munich, we had a stopover at Augsburg to visit The Fuggerei.

This is the oldest social settlement in the world today. It was founded by Jakob Fugger in 1521 for needy citizens of Augsburg. The Fuggerei is an ensemble of eight lanes and seven gates and like a "city within a city having its own church and "city walls" and "city gates".

The annual rent for an apartment has not changed for almost five hundred years and is still the nominal value of one Rhine guilder (around 0.88 euros)! However, another 'rent' is also payable; the tenant is committed to recite three prayers daily for the founder and the Fugger family.

A wooden fountain located at the main intersection of the Fuggerei as the first mains water supply for the settlementwas replaced with this cast iron basin fountain in 1744.

Apartment number 14 was the home of Franz Mozart who had lived in this upstairs apartment. He was the great-grandfather of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is now the entrance into the Fuggerei Museum.

The settlement is now still administered by the descendants of the Fugger family and financed through the same foundation that was also set up in 1521.

Jakob Fugger was a most magnanimous man. The founding of this settlement and his other charities earned him a most deserving place in Walhalla, the "consecrated temple for all famous persons of the German tongue" where a marble bust in his image was placed.