Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria in Germany. It is a University town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a population exceeding 264,000 citizens. After Neuss and Trier, Augsburg is Germany’s third oldest city.
Augsburg is the only German city with its own legal holiday, the Peace of Augsburg, celebrated on August 8 of every year. This gives Augsburg more legal holidays than any other region or city in Germany.
Augsburg’s peak boom years occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries via the bank and metal businesses of the merchant families Fugger and Welser, who held a local near total monopoly on their respective industries. Augsburg’s wealth attracted artists seeking patrons and rapidly became a creative center for famous painters, sculptors and musicians notably birthplace of : the Holbein painter family, the composer Leopold Mozart and the playwright Berthold Brecht. Rococo became so prevalent that it became known as “Augsburg style” throughout Germany.
The Fuggerei is the world’s oldest social housing complex still in use. It is a walled enclave within the city of Augsburg, Bavaria. It takes it name from the Fugger family and was founded in 1516 by Jacob Fugger the Younger (known as “Jacob Fugger the Rich”) as a place where the needy citizens of Augsburg could be housed. By 1523, 52 houses had been built, and in the coming years the area expanded with various streets, small squares and a church. The gates were locked at night, so the Fuggerei was, in its own right, very similar to a small independent medieval town. It is still inhabited today, affording it the status of being the oldest social housing project in the world.
