Founded more than 2,000 years ago under the Roman Emperor Augustus, Augsburg is one of the oldest German cities. The economic heyday of this former Free Imperial Town was during the 15th and 16th centuries when it flourished thanks to foreign trade and the banking businesses of the Fuggers and Welsers. Reminders of these glorious days can be seen in the historical city centre with the splendid Maximilianstrasse and the Renaissance and Baroque façades of the palaces and patrician houses. Since 2019, the Augsburg water management system, with its 22 sites – water purification works, the fountain monument, the water infrastructure, power stations, waterways and canals – has been included on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites.
Augsburg
The animated city
History
- 15 BC Drusus and Tiberius, step sons of Emperor Augustus set up a military camp on the site of the present-day city
- AD 304 Martyr’s death of St. Afra
- 955 Battle of Lechfeld
- 1156 First Augsburg city charter
- 1276 Second Augsburg city charter
- 1316 Augsburg granted Free Imperial Town status
- 1519 Construction of the Fuggerei
- 1530 Confessio Augustana (Augsburg Confession)
- 1555 Religious Peace of Augsburg
- 1650 Augsburg Festival of Peace
- 1770-72 Johann Heinrich Schüle founds the first continental calico manufactory
- 1806 Incorporation of the Imperial City of Augsburg in the Kingdom of Bavaria
- about 1816 Augsburg is Bavaria’s leading banking centre: Augsburg Bourse
- 1840 Completion of the Munich-Augsburg railway line; the first train runs
- 1929 Open-air theatre opened
- 1970 Augsburg University founded
- 1985 2000th anniversary of the city, Golden Hall in the Town Hall restored
- 2019 Augsburg becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the Augsburg Water Management System
Highlights
Town Hall (1615-20): one of the most attractive secular Renaissance buildings north of the Alps, built by Elias Holl; magnificent…
Perlachturm
Perlachturm (11th / 12th centuries): 70 m high tower with lantern belfry and ‘Welscher Haube’ roof by Elias Holl (1614-16).
St. Mary’s Cathedral
St. Mary’s Cathedral: first documentary mention in AD 823; crypt (10th century) and glass paintings of figures, thought to be…
St. Ulrich and St. Afra
St. Ulrich and St. Afra: originally an Abbey church (1474); late Gothic basilica (15th / 16th centuries) with onion tower…
St. Anna Augsburg
St. Anna (1321, extended in the 15th century): former Carmelite monastery church with Gothic wall decorations and valuable paintings (Lucas…
Fugger City Palace
Fugger City Palace (1512-15): home and business premises of Jakob Fugger with charming Renaissance-style inside courtyards (Damenhof)., Copyright Regio Augsburg…
Fountains in the Maximilianstrasse
Fountains in the Maximilianstrasse: Augustus (1589-94), Herkules (1596-1602) and Merkur (1599) fountains., Copyright Regio Augsburg Tourismus GmbH/Christine Pemsl
Schaezler Palace
Schaezler Palace (1765-70); impressive secular Baroque building with wonderful staircase and Rococo banqueting hall.
Roman Museum
Roman Museum with archaeological discoveries from Augsburg and the Bavarian-Swabian region covering prehistory, the Roman Age and the Early Middle…
Maximilian Museum
Maximilian Museum with collection on the cultural and municipal history of Augsburg; local works of art in gold and silver.
Bert Brecht Memorial Museum
Bert Brecht Memorial Museum: a survey of the life and works of Bertolt Brecht; documentation covering the Augsburg years.
Museum of the Augsburg Puppet Theatre
The performances of the puppet theater take place on the first floor. Jim Knopf, Urmel, Sams, Kater Mikesch and many…
Leopold Mozart House
Mozart House: reopened on 27 January 2006, the renovated house contains an impressive presentation on Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus and…
Fugger and Welser Museum
Fugger and Welser Museum. This newly opened museum, in the extensively renovated Renaissance building of the ‘Wieselhaus’, enables visitors to…
Natural history museum
Natural history museum with planetarium, Copyright Siegfried Kerpf, Copyright Siegfried Kerpf
Glass Palace
H2 Centre for Contemporary Art in the Glass Palace., Copyright Museum Walter, Copyright Museum Walter
St. Afra Diocesan Museum
The St. Afra Diocesan Museum: where you can experience seventeen hundred years of history. Excavations from Roman times, textiles from…
UNESCO World Heritage Site Water Management System of Augsburg
Augsburg Water Management System (2019). Augsburg’s water management system is unique in the world and an iconic example of progress,…
Open-air stage at the Red Gate Augsburg
With over 2,100 seats, the Freilichtbühne am Roten Tor is one of the largest open-air stages in southern Germany and…
Augsburg Christmas Market
Perhaps the most beautiful Christmas market in Germany on the town hall square and in the pedestrian zone
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Augsburg Water Management System (2019)
Augsburg’s water management system is unique in the world and an iconic example of progress, aesthetics and sustainability. As a result of its continued use and constant extension, it was a crucial influence on Renaissance waterworks, as well as on the technological developments of the industrial revolution. You can find more information HERE