Fuggerei — World's Oldest Social Housing Estate
Built in 1516 by merchant prince Jakob Fugger, the Fuggerei is a walled village within the city where Augsburg's Catholic poor have paid the same annual rent for five centuries: 88 euro cents plus three daily prayers. Walking its cobbled lanes feels like stepping into a perfectly preserved Renaissance town-within-a-town.
A Living, Breathing Renaissance Experiment
The Fuggerei comprises 67 houses divided into 142 small apartments, and around 150 people still live here today under the original 1521 statutes. Residents must be Catholic, Augsburg-born, and fallen on hard times through no fault of their own — the same criteria Jakob Fugger wrote down 500 years ago.
Each front door bears a different wrought-iron knocker, a tradition that let residents identify their home in the dark before street lighting. Spotting all the different designs — fish, hands, crowns, animals — has become an unofficial game for visitors.
The Museum Apartment and WWII Bunker
One apartment is preserved as a 18th-century museum flat, furnished exactly as a poor Augsburg family would have lived, with a box bed, ceramic stove and a single window overlooking the lane. It's one of the most intimate small museums in Bavaria.
Beneath the Fuggerei runs a Second World War air-raid bunker, now open to visitors, that sheltered residents during the 1944 bombing raids that destroyed much of Augsburg. The contrast between the serene cobbled streets above and the raw concrete below is genuinely striking.
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