AUGSBURG
Sightseeing
History I
Sightseeing I
Practical I Hotels in Augsburg
Augsburg, built on an encampment of the Roman Legions, was one of the
richest cities of Germany - and still is. Despite the devastations
brought by the air-raids of WW II, the substance of the old city has
proven strong enough to have survived.
Famus Buildings:
Rathaus (Town Hall) (1615-26) Masterpiece of Elias Holl, best and
uniquely Augsburgian Renaissance. Interior (reconstructed in 1978-85) :
Goldener Saal (Golden Hall)
Zeughaus (City Armory) (1602-07) by Elias Holl, demonstrates the power
of the civitas.
Stadtmetzg(erei) (City Butcher) (1609) by Elias Holl, St. George's
Fountain
Schaezler Palais
: this palace from 1765-1767 houses the Bavarian State Baroque Museum
Maximilian Museum
: City history, exhibition of works by Augsburg's master
goldsmiths and silversmiths
Brecht House and Mozart House: Memorials to two of the city's famous
sons
Fountains:
the
Augustusbrunnen (in front of Rathaus) (1589-94) by Hubert Gerhart, the Merkurbrunnen (1596-99) by Adriaen de Vries,
and the Herkulesbrunnen (in front of Schaetzler Palais) (1596-1602) by Adriaen
de Vries
The
Fuggerei, (1525), the world's first social housing project established
by Jakob Fugger II: it is Europe's oldest housing estate and founded by
Jacob Fugger, a member of what was then the richest family in Europe.
The intention was to provide homes for the poor citizens of the town.
Today it is a home for senior and retired citizens. There are a total of
52 houses lined in 6 streets.
Some of the main hurches are :
Dom St. Mary (Cath. Cathedral, a pecularity of Augsburg is that many
of its curches exist under the same name as a Catholic and a Protestant
building, a sign of the influence of the rich, mostly Protestant
patrician merchants (eg. the Fuggers et al)). (1047-63, 1331-43,
1410-31) This long history of building and rebuilding explains the
various styles from early Romanesque to late Gothic. Portals (1065)
most remarkable, doors with 35 unique cast-bronze reliefs. Interior:
Five magnificent stained-glass paintings (1100 !) in choir windows.
Some remains of frescoes (11th cent). Panel painting (1554) by
Christoph Amberger (C.A.) Mary surrounded by the Augsburger saints.
Chapels: Marienkapelle (1721). Cloister (1470). Numerous remarkable
epitaphs (1285-1601)
St. Ulrich and St. Afra Kirche
(Catholic parish church) (1467-1500, 1603)
Formerly monastery of the Benedictines who resisted the Reformation
(long building hiatus 1500-1600). 1710 a new Baroque chapel (St.
Ulrich) is ceded to the Protestants as a "Predigersaal" (preachers'
hall). A Gothic building with an architecturally Renaissance ambiance, a
very rare case in Germany. Interior: Three magnificent altar shrines
in choir and side-arms concieved as a unity by Johann Degler (1604-07),
by the same: chancel and organ (1608). St. Ulrich's Gruft (1762)
Baroque in the underground!
St Anna (1497), former Carmelite monastery, 1525 Protestant,
remodelled in Baroque in 1748 ! Interior: Fugger Chapel (1518) One of
the earliest Renaissance buildings in Germany ! Goldsmiths' Chapel
(1420-25) with **frescoes of 1420-30.
Hl. Kreuz-Kirche (church of the
Holy Cross) (the Catholic version !) (1503-08) Dominican Pilgimage
Church, Interior: Baroque (1716-19). On east-wall of the northern nave:
original painting by Peter Paul Rubens: "Mary's Visitation" (1626)
