Fotoeins Fotografie

Above/featured: Facing north on Maximilianstrasse: Steigenberger Hotel Drei Mohren (left), Fuggerhäuser (orange) – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

Why Augsburg?

• Fugger family legacy
• Martin Luther and the Reformation legacy
• Water supply management, newly inscribed World Heritage Site

I had come to Augsburg to find and understand traces Martin Luther left behind in the city. What I learned was the extent of the lasting legacy provided by the Fugger family, and how the city has for centuries provided safe clean water to her citizens, and how that water management system has become world-renowned as a piece of cultural heritage, forming the basis of an application for recognition as a World Heritage Site.

Short intro to the “A”

Located in southern Germany, Augsburg has 300-thousand inhabitants as Bavaria’s third largest city by population, after Munich and Nuremberg. From a regional standpoint, Augsburg lies within the historic and cultural region of Swabia which is spread throughout Bavaria and the neighbouring federal state of Baden-Württemberg.

Augsburg is the third oldest city in Germany, after Neuss and Trier; all three have Roman roots. After subjugation of resident tribes of the area in the early part of the 1st-century AD/CE, the Roman Empire established Raetia province with the northern frontier at the Danube river. The Romans had at first a military camp near the confluence of the Lech and Wertach rivers, followed by a growing civilian population. In honour of Roman emperor Augustus, the city established in 15 BC/BCE was called Augusta Vindelicorum (also named Augusta Vindelicum or Aelia Augusta), serving as the province’s administrative centre. The Raetian capital city had direct road connections to the frontier at the military encampment Castra Regina (Regensburg). The city’s location next to two rivers and its proximity to the Alps ensured Augsburg’s growing importance. The Via Claudia Augusta would serve as an essential Roman road and connection over the Alps, strengthening trade and supply lines between the empire’s northern provinces and the empire’s heartland to the south.

From medieval times, the city’s construction and management of the water supply provided clean drinking water, waste management, generation of mechanical power which meant industry and production of materials; the emergent merchant, banking, and textiles scene; and brought wealth and benefactors for artists to begin flocking to the Free Imperial City (1276-1803).

In January 2015, participating state partner country Germany sent an application to UNESCO to consider Augsburg’s historical water management system (Wassersystem) for universal recognition. A part of the application’s description states:

The oldest water towers in central Europe are located in an idyllic setting on the edge of the Lech quarter. Three monumental Renaissance fountains grace the main boulevard of the old city. From the city hall plaza you will follow the Lech canals through the old town’s artisan quarter to the water works at the Red Gate.

Augsburg, her people, and their hard work have paid off in a big way. In 2019 at the 43rd meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Baku, Azerbaijan, the committee approved the inscription of the city’s historical water management system as World Heritage Site. You can see the beginning of the video presentation for item “43 COM 8B.28” here, and you can see the moment when the inscription became official here.

A-List Highlights

I describe 20 historical and cultural recommendations which can be covered over a two- to three-day visit to the city. Every item in the following list is clickable, and every item is marked in the map below.

1. Brechthaus (Brecht house)
2. Dom (Cathedral)
3. Fuggerdenkmal (Fugger monument)
4. Fuggerei housing estate
5. Fuggerhäuser (Fugger Stadtpalais)
6. Herkulesbrunnen (Hercules fountain)^W
7. Lechkänale (Lech canals)^W
8. Martin Luther
9. Maximilianmuseum (Maximilian Museum)
10. Maximilianstrasse
11. Metzg (meat market)^W
12. Peutingerhaus (Peutinger house)
13. Rathausplatz (City Hall Square)
14. Römische Grabungsstätte (Roman excavation site)
15. Rotes Tor (Red Gate)^W
16. St.-Anna-Kirche (St. Anne’s Church)
17. St. Ulrich und St. Afra Basilika (Basilica of Saints Ulrich and Afra)
18. Steinerner Mann (Stone Man)
19. SWA Gedenktafel (memorial plaque)
20. Vogeltor (Bird Gate)^W

^W Part of the historical water management system (Wassersystem Augsburg, Augsburgs Wassererbe).

Below I’ve also noted where applicable the catalog number of a heritage property listed by the BLfD (Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege), known also as the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation.

Brechthaus (Brecht house)

German writer, poet, and playwright Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg in 1898. The city seemed reluctant to acknowledge Brecht’s birth: was it because he associated with Communist artists, an avowed leftist through opinion and writings, and spent the post-War years in East Berlin until his premature death in 1956? The passage of time softens attitudes, and the city has recognized his birth house as monument. The core of the house is 16th- to 17th-century and next to the main entrance is a plaque in German (my English translation):

Bert-Brecht-Gedenkstätte. In diesem Handwerkerhaus wurde am 10. Februar 1898 Eugen Berthold Brecht geboren. Die Stadt Augsburg hat dieses Haus erworben und zu Ehren des Dichters eine Gedenkstätte errichtet. // Bertold Brecht Memorial. Eugen Berthold Brecht was born on 10 February 1898 in this craftman’s house. The city of Augsburg acquired the house and put up a memorial in honour of the poet.

Brechthaus – both HL images on 12 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-105.
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Dom (Cathedral)

Founded in the 9th-century AD/CE to replace the destroyed Carolingian structure, the Catholic cathedral is also known as Hoher Dom zu Augsburg or Domkirche Mariä Heimsuchung (Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary). Since the spires were put up in the 11th-century, various phases of construction, extension, and addition have produced a structure classified as an “Ottonian-Salic five-aisled double-choir basilica.”

Cathedral’s gothic east choir (1356-1483 AD/CE), from Domplatz – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

West crypt, east apse: Romanesque alpine-style Madonna and child, as “Thron der Weisheit” (“throne of wisdom”), c. 1300 AD/CE. Worshippers in early Christian tradition would have revered this “Gnadenbild” symbol as the incarnation of God. HL photo on 12 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-238.
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Fuggerdenkmal (Fugger monument)

In many ways, Augsburg is synonymous with the Fugger family, their wealth, and influence. Standing tall at Fuggerplatz (Fugger Square/Plaza) is memorial to Jakob Fugger, consisting of a bronze sculpture by Friedrich Brugger and gifted to Augsburg in 1857 from Bavarian King Ludwig I. The Fugger family’s collection of ancient manuscripts and books have formed the basis of the present-day Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) in Munich.

16th-century German reformer and colleague of Martin Luther, Phillip Melanchthon once said:

Augsburg is the German Florence, and the Fuggers are a match for the Medici.

He was either simply stating facts, he was highlighting an obvious parallel, or both. Fact is the Fuggers in Augsburg and the Medicis in Florence became wealthy as merchants and lenders, and both families earned profit and exerted influence through their support of issuing indulgences for money.

Fuggerdenkmal, at Fuggerplatz – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

Back of Fuggerdenkmal, facing north at Fuggerplatz – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-795.
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Fuggerei housing estate

Jakob Fugger established in 1521 the Fuggerei estate, standing as one of the earliest, if not the oldest, examples of social housing in the world. With destruction in 1944 from a World War 2 bombing raid, funds from the Fuggerei Foundation were directed towards reconstruction according to historical specifications and the estate reopened a few short years later. The Fuggerei remains in use today with about 150 people. Renters pay an annual sum of less than 1 Euro (not including heating costs)^€. According to Jakob Fugger’s will, renters must be Catholic, demonstrate financial need, and promise to pray three times every day for the souls of the Fugger family. The Fuggerei has over 60 terraced houses each with two units and a small garden; the estate has its own perimeter wall with three gates. Walking through the quiet lanes among the modest pale brown-yellow houses, there’s little doubt about the reputation that is “a city within a city.”

^€ 0.88 Euro is equivalent to 1 Rhenish guilder (Rheinischer Gulden) from the 16th-century.

Facing north on Herrengasse to the main entrance: covered fountain, Ochsengasse (left), Mittlere Gasse (right) – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

Visible from Karrengässchen, the plaque in Latin appears above the door for (restricted) entry into the Fuggerei at Ochsengasse. HL photo on 11 Mar 2017.

MDXIX / VDALR GEOG IACOB FVGGERI AVGVST: / GERMANI FRATRES QVA BONO REIP SE NATOS / QVA FORTVNAM MAXIMAR OPVM / D.O.M. ACCEPTAM / IN PRIMIS REFERENDVM RATI OB PIRTATEM ET / EXIMIAM IN EXEMPLVM LARGITATEM / AEDES C VI CVM OPERE ET CVLTV MVNICIPIB / SVIS FRVGI SED PAVPERIE LABORANTIB / D D D

1519. The Fuggers of the Lily (family coat of arms) were born for the benefit of this city. According to inscription, the Fugger family have committed themselves to repay their God-given riches back to the city. Out of piety and as a model of high generosity, the Fuggers have donated 106 furnished dwellings to hard-working but poor fellow citizens. [2]

[1] From “Macht und Medien um 1500: Selbstinszenierungen und Legitimationsstrategien von Habsburgern und Fuggern”, by Alexander Kagerer, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2017, p. 300.

[2] My best shot at the partial German translation of the Latin inscription.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-284.
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Fuggerhäuser (Fugger Stadtpalais)

Jakob Fugger led the charge between 1512 and 1515 in building the city family palace, Fuggerhäser (Fugger Stadtpalais), which included four courtyards. Their family palace underwent further phases of expansion by his nephew and heir Anton Fugger and subsequent generations. Notable rulers (Maximilian I, Charles V) and artists (Dürer, Titian, Mozart) stayed here. The debate between Martin Luther and Cardinal Cajetan took place here in 1518. The Damenhof (“ladies’ courtyard”) was the first secular building of the German Renaissance and is considered one of the most beautiful courtyards of the age. In Serenadenhof (“serenades courtyard”) the Fuggers had included grand halls and large rooms for Habsburg rulers who stayed here on their visits to Augsburg. The buildings were rebuilt in simplified form after fire took down the buildings in 1944 from a World War 2 bombing raid.

HL photo on 11 Mar 2017.

Innenhof (interior courtyard) – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

Damenhof, an example of medieval Italian-German Renaissance – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

Sunlit exterior of the sgraffito façade, from Maximilianstrasse – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-645.
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Herkulesbrunnen (Hercules fountain)

On Maximilianstrasse are three “Prachtbrunnen” water fountains: Augustusbrunnen at Rathausplatz, Merkurbrunnen (Mercury), and Herkulesbrunnen (Hercules). These grand fountains of the late 16th-century are clear illustrations of how the city’s important water management and delivery system was glorified with bronze, an expensive metal in the early 17th-century. These fountains are covered in winter under protective wood enclosures. The original German Renaissance bronze sculpture casts and fixtures are housed within the Maximilianmuseum.

Construction of the Hercules water fountain began in 1596 and ended in 1600 with commissioning in 1602; the central pillar underwent restoration in 1826. Sculptures were by Adriaen de Vries made the sculptures, and Wolfgang Neidhardt did the foundry casting. The Hercules fountain stands next to the Schaezlerpalais, a 1765 town palace in the Rococo style, in the area once known as Weinmarkt (wine market).

( #fliesstbeiuns: Augsburgs Wassererbe / Augsburg’s water heritage. )

Herkulesbrunnen in wintertime protective cover, and behind in white is the Schaezlerpalais (1765, Rococo-style town palace) – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

Herkulesbrunnen in wintertime protective cover, facing north on Maximilianstrasse – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

“Open” Herkulesbrunnen, facing south on Maximilianstrasse. Photo by Sandra Kaiser (Planinghaus architekten) and published 23 June 2016 for UNESCO World Heritage.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-650.
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Lechkänale (Lech canals)

With its canal system, Augsburg has a bit of that Venice feel and appearance. Construction began in medieval times, as the city used canals to divert water from the Lech river to drive water wheels for mills and industry to generate market commerce, for the delivery of goods up and down the river and through the city, for defense, and for waste disposal. The Lech canals include the Vorderer Lech, Schwallech, Mittlerer Lech, Hinterer Lech, Stadtgraben, Inner Stadtgraben, Stadtbach and Brunnenmeisterbach.

( #fliesstbeiuns: Augsburgs Wassererbe / Augsburg’s water heritage. )

Next to the Brechthaus is the Brechthausbrücke over the waters of the Hinterer Lech – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

Behind the Brechthaus is the Mittlerer Lech (right) – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-1933.
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Martin Luther

As a contemporary of Jakob Fugger, Luther had targeted the Fuggers’ financial ties to the Catholic Church. After having borrowed money from the Fuggers to secure his position as a high representative of the Church, Albert (Albrecht) of Brandenburg would repay debt by raising funds with the selling of indulgences where people paid to get souls out of purgatory with the permission of Pope Leo X (of the Medici family). Officially, simony and usury were condemned by the Church; unofficially, who could turn down easy exchanges of money? These practices ran counter to what Luther was trying to achieve for everybody else who wasn’t a part of the system; i.e., the church or the wealthy.

Months after making his 95 Theses known to church authorities and the public, Martin Luther was called to Augsburg in 1518 by Cardinal Cajetan, papal legate and representative. Luther was to answer charges of heresy for challenging the morality of indulgences and for questioning the supreme authority of the Pope. Cajetan urged Luther to recant or revoke his statements (“revoca!”), but Luther held firm and refused to comply. The subsequent Reformation movement asked serious questions of individual faith and collective religion, which caused severe disagreement along both religious and political lines and sparked conflicts and wars of religion on the continent. Luther helped light a fire, but let’s be honest: he was no saint.

I’ve picked out a number of locations in Augsburg where Luther made his stand against Cajetan and the Catholic Church and where Luther’s Reformation legacy took hold in the city.

“REVOCA!“ is what Cajetan demanded of Luther in 1518: display at the Museum Lutherstiege inside St. Anne’s Church – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

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Maximilianmuseum

Across from the Fugger monument at Fuggerplatz is the Maximilianmuseum which since 1855 has been housed in a mid 16th-century town mansion and merchant house. The museum is home to the city’s applied arts and historical collections, including original bronze sculptures and plates from the three principal fountains on Maximilianstrasse and Kastenturm’s fountain boy from the municipal waterworks at Rotes Tor.

Maximilianmuseum, across from Fuggerdenkmal at Fuggerplatz – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

Concordia (agreement) between city goddesses Augusta and Roma. Relief and water spout from Hercules Fountain. Adriaen de Vries (model), Wolfgang Neidhardt (cast). Augsburg, 1596-1602. More on Hercules fountain; HL photo in Maximilianmuseum on 11 Mar 2017.

City goddess Augusta marches into the city. Relief and water spout from Hercules Fountain. Adriaen de Vries (model), Wolfgang Neidhardt (cast). Augsburg, 1596-1602. More on Hercules fountain; HL photo in Maximilianmuseum on 11 Mar 2017.

Brunnenjüngling (Fountain youth), Brunnenjüngling or fountain youth holding a shell from where water flows. The fountain quietly and steadily provides water which is the foundation for Augsburg economy. Originally at the top of the Kastenturm; see Rotes Tor. HL photo in Maximilianmuseum on 11 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-803.
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Maximilianstrasse

Maximilianstrasse is a display of wealth by the number of brightly coloured merchant houses between Rathausplatz next to the Rathaus and Ulrichsplatz next to Saints Ulrich and Afra. Three key water fountains (Augustus, Hercules, Mercury) are all located on Maximilianstrasse. There are also abundant opportunities for both resident and visitor to loosen their purse strings in exchange for products and services.

Maximilianstrasse – 12 Mar 2017.

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Metzg (meat market)

We’ve long taken for granted safety in food preparation and storage. Refrigeration did not exist in medieval times; someone smartly built a channel to guide water from the Vorderer Lech canal underneath the building for the Stadtmetzg, the town’s meat market. This achieved two things: 1. water helped prevent spoilage by keeping meat cool, and 2. waste fluid and trimmings were disposed in the flowing water and away from the market. This early 17th-century building by Elias Holl was home to the former meat market and to the Trade Guild for Butchers.

( #fliesstbeiuns: Augsburgs Wassererbe / Augsburg’s water heritage. )

Metzg – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

Ox skull ornament next to the building’s front door – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-679.
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Peutingerhaus

16th-century German scholar, town clerk, and antiquarian Konrad Peutinger lived in this house which is across from the city cathedral. When he arrived in town in 1518 to answer charges of heresy, Martin Luther was Peutinger’s guest and stayed in this house. Peutinger collected Roman antiques including coins and stone monuments which formed the basis for research on the Roman Empire in Augsburg. He came to own a map of Roman Roads; the map was published in 1598 in his honour under the name “Tabula Peutingeriana” or the Peutinger map. We owe much of our current understanding of Roman settlements and their road system to this map.

Konrad Peutinger (1465-1547) lived in this house: he was city clerk, humanist, teacher, and friend to Emperor Maximilian. The city installed a memorial plaque (right of entrance) to mark Peutinger’s 500th birthday. A plaque at left of entrance commemorates Hans Adlhoch who served both city and church; he was sent to Dachau camp in late-1944 and died shortly after the camp’s liberation in 1945. HL photo on 10 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-773.
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Rathausplatz: Perlachturm, St. Peter, Rathaus

The scene at Rathausplatz (City Hall Square) is dominated by Perlachturm (Perlach tower) next to St. Peter’s Church, and by the Rathaus (City Hall). Perlach tower was built in the early 16th-century as a watch tower; the present-day eight-storey building rebuilt and expanded after the war is now a bell tower. The former Gothic town hall was demolished; in its place was Elias Holl’s example of secular Renaissance architecture, built between 1615 and 1620. The World War 2 aerial bombing raid in 1944 reduced the building to ruins, and decades of painstaking work have restored both exterior and interior. On the third floor is the glorious and spacious Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), a ceremonial hall that’s over 32 metres (106 feet) long and 14 metres (46 feet) high, all decked out with shimmering gold leaf.

Perlachturm, St. Peter am Perlach Church (left); Rathaus (right) – HL, 10 Mar 2017.

Goldener Saal, Rathaus – 11 Mar 2017.

Ceiling in gold leaf: Goldener Saal, Rathaus – 11 Mar 2017.

Lady Augusta in red robe and holding a pine cone (Zirbelnuss): over the door in the Goldener Saal, Rathaus – 11 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-826, -825, -824.
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Römische Grabungsstätte (Roman excavation site)

Given Augsburg’s history, there have been “more than a few” Roman artifacts found. Next to the Cathedral and across from the Peutingerhaus is a former excavation site with remnants of former churches (e.g., 10th-century St. John’s church) and secular ruins from the Roman Empire. Also nearby is a modern version of a Roman wall accompanied by a collection of stone monuments (replicas) from the Roman Empire (Gedenksteinsammlung bei der Römermauer).

Roman excavation site in front of the Cathedral – HL, 10 Mar 2017.

Collection of Roman Empire relics, next to the Römermauer (Roman wall) – HL, 10 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-283, -1217.
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Rotes Tor (Red Gate)

Constructed by Elias Holl in 1622, Rotes Tor (Red Gate) was a city gate built on top of a Gothic-style building at this southern section of the city bastion or wall put together eleven years earlier in 1611.

Here there are three water towers: Grosser Turm (Large Tower, 1416 then bricked 1463); Kleiner Turm (Small Tower, foundation 1470); and the Kastenturm (Box Tower, also Spitalturm, 1599). Below the Large and Small Towers, the Fountain Master House (Brunnenmeisterhaus) building included a part of the waterworks (until 1879) and an apartment for the fountain operations master. The pumping towers are the oldest water utilities buildings in central Europe since medieval times. Augsburgian ingenuity with these waterworks provided fresh clean drinking water to its citizens for over 460 years from 1416 to 1879. Pumping stations within the three towers supplied water to public wells and private households in the area between Basilika St. Ulrich and Afra and the Rathaus. With expansion and increased capacity, the Box Tower began supplying water to the three “Prachtbrunnen” fountains on Maximilianstrasse in the 17th-century. Sculptor Adriaen de Vries created the Brunnenjüngling (Fountain youth) for the reservoir on the hexagonal upper floor of the Box Tower to display the technical advancement and state of the water system. The Brunnenjüngling sculpture is now in the Maximilianmuseum.

( #fliesstbeiuns: Augsburgs Wassererbe / Augsburg’s water heritage. )

Rotes Tor (Red Gate) – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

Grosser Turm (upper right), Kleiner Turm (upper left), Brunnenmeisterhaus (lower left), city wall (right) – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

Kastenturm, photo by Neitram (Wiki CC4).

Google Earth: above Rotes Tor and facing east: labelled are Rotes Tor (R), the octagonal Grosser Turm (1), Kleiner Turm (2), and the hexagonal Kastenturm (3).

St.-Anna-Kirche (St. Anne’s Church)

St. Anne’s Church began life as a Catholic church, built in 1321 as part of a monastery for Carmelite friars. By 1545, the Reformation had swept through Augsburg, and St. Anne’s became a Protestant (evangelical) church by 1550. St. Anne’s also has the Goldsmith’s Chapel (Goldschmiedkapelle, 1420) with its murals and the Fugger Chapel (Fugerkapelle, 1508) where Jakob Fugger among other Fuggers are buried. The Fugger Chapel has remained Catholic within the Protestant church at large. Martin Luther stayed at St. Anne’s for a couple of weeks for his meetings with Cardinal Cajetan.

St.-Anna-Kirche – HL, 12 Mar 2017

Fugger Crypt underneath the Fugger Chapel. The four circular handholds indicate the capstone can be lifted and removed for access below. “Eingang zur Gruft des Jakob Fugger (1459-1525), seiner Brüder Georg (starb 1506), Ulrich (+ 1511) und Neffen Raymund (+ 1535), Hieronymus (+ 1538). R.I.P.” // Entrance to Fugger Crypt: Jacob Fugger (1459-1525), his brothers George (died 1506), Ulrich (d. 1511), and nephews Raymud (d. 1535), Hieronymus (d. 1538). R.I.P.” HL photo on 11 Mar 2017.

Friedensengel (Angel of Peace), commemorating the 1648 Peace of Westphalia ending The Thirty Years’ War. HL photo on 11 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-69.
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Basilika St. Ulrich und St. Afra (Basilica of Saints Ulrich and Afra)

The churches here are a cooperative mix of Catholicism and Protestantism, thanks to the Augsburg Peace treaty in 1555. The treaty was an important watershed in the Protestant movement; the treaty got “its own statue” at the world’s largest Reformation Monument in Worms, Germany. I wrote:

… the city of Augsburg was (again) an important site where a peace treaty in 1555 between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Schmalkaldic League was signed … The treaty ended the struggle between Catholics and Protestants, and made Protestantism official within the Holy Roman Empire. A key principle from the Augsburg Peace of 1555 was the statement “cuius regio, eius religio“, where local rulers were allowed to choose Lutheranism or Catholicism as the faith of practice for their respective states.

St. Ulrich parish church (Protestant) was built in 1457 and rebuilt in the early 18th-century. The Pfarrhaus or rectory for the vicarage of St. Ulrich and Afra is a two-storey gabled corner house from the 16th- to 17th-century. With its foundation around 970 AD/CE, the Catholic basilica like many other similar churches underwent various construction stages throughout the centuries.

From Ulrichsplatz: Rectory (lower left), Protestant church (foreground centre), Catholic basilica (background centre) – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

St. Ulrich, on the rectory’s exterior wall – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-1031, -1032, -1033.
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Steinerner Mann (Stone Man)

At the city wall near Schwedenstiege is the 18th-century construction of a life-sized figure of a man at the bottom of Dohlenturm (Dohlen tower) since 1955. Not only is the odd look explained by construction with disparate sandstone parts, he also has the look of a baker which is consistent with the legend; see link above. In the Swabian dialect, “Steinerner Mann” becomes “Dr Schtoinerne Ma.” Apparently, luck comes to those who rub the man’s nose.

“Dr Schtoinerne Ma” – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-1, 1445.
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SWA Gedenktafel (Memorial Plaque, SWA)

The location of the city’s SWA utilities company was once the former location of the Riedingerbunker. The story goes that on 28 April 1945 as US Army troops appeared in the city, some of the remaining population and elements of the resistance movement greeted the troops near the Riedinger bunker and offered their surrender to avoid further destruction and bloodshed. Unveiled in 2010, a memorial plaque appears on the exterior wall of the SWA building to commemorate the US Army liberation of Augsburg in 1945.

Next to the “Dom/Stadtwerke” stop for tram 2 is the SWA Stadtwerkehaus; the plaque is at right. HL photo on 10 Mar 2017.

2010 memorial plaque, SWA Stadtwerkehaus. HL photo on 10 Mar 2017.

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Vogeltor (Bird Gate)

As a watchtower at one of the city’s gates through the city wall, Vogeltor or Bird Gate was a four-storey brick building built in 1445 and subsequent post-war reconstruction to repair damage completed in 1954. There’s also a water wheel on top of the Stadtgraben canal, indicating the presence of former waterworks which supplied drinking water to the city’s Lechviertel (Lech quarter). The initial water tower was built in 1538 with an addition tower in 1776 whose collective operation continued until 1879.

( #fliesstbeiuns: Augsburgs Wassererbe / Augsburg’s water heritage. )

Vogeltor, with the water wheel in deep shadow at lower right – HL, 11 Mar 2017.

Wasserrad (water wheel) over Stadtgraben – 11 Mar 2017.

BLfD Baudenkmal D-7-61-000-1, -1052, -1933.
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Roman Empire’s northern perimeter

The following map of the Roman Empire around 150 AD/CE shows the imperial northern territories in what is now southeast France, southern Luxembourg, southern Germany, western Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and northern Italy. Civitas Remorum (Reims, France) is at upper-left; Lugdunum (Lyon, France) is at lower-left; and Patavium (Padua, Italy) is at lower-right. Hugging the frontier is the Roman province of Raetia at upper right with capital city Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg) and military camp Castra Regina (Regensburg) along the Danube river (Danuvius). The Roman road “Via Raetia” connected Augusta Vindelicorum with Verona and Italia to the south over the Alps via (present-day) Epfach, Partenkirchen, Klais, Mittenwald, Scharnitz, Seefeld, Innsbruck, Brenner.

Northern Roman provinces, c. 150 AD/CE. Map by Marco Zanoli (Wik CC3). North is at the top of the map. Underlined are the names of provincial administrative capitals, including Augusta Vindelicorum; I’ve also added some present-day city names in parentheses.

Tabula Peutingeriana (section)

The following annotated section of the “Tabula Peutingeriana” (Peutinger map of Roman roads) is a digitized version of a 19th-century reproduction of a 13th-century parchment which itself might have been a copy of a Roman original from the 4th-century AD/CE. For a lover of maps, it’s a remarkable insight to mapmaking and to knowledge of settlements in the Roman Empire. Konrad Peutinger found himself owning the map, which is now in safe storage at the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Augsburg appears in the map as “Avgvsta vindelicv̄“.

The location for Avgvsta vindelicv̄ (Augusta Vindelicum) appearing in Segmentum IV, from Tabula Peutingeriana: after “Die Weltkarte des Castorius : genannt die Peutingersche Tafel”, by Konrad Miller (1887). I’ve added labels for some other modern-day places.

Thanks to Augsburg Tourism for their support, Kristen Gast (née Strejc) for her time on the guided city tour, and to Hotel am alten Park for their hospitality. Augsburg is one of the cities in the Historic Highlights of Germany. I made photos labelled “HL” between 10 and 12 March 2017; other photos have been noted with proper attribution. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie on fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-9vr.

•   DW Check-In (22 Jun 2019)
•   Augsburg coat of arms: red and white vertical stripes, and the ubiquitous “Zirbelnuss” (Swiss pine nut).