Augsburg

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Friday 17th September 2010

Today we caught the bus into Augsburg and visited its magnificent town hall the Rathaus with its Goldener Saal or Golden Hall ( see pix ). Augsburg took a pounding in WW2 being the home of some key armament factories and the Rathaus has been rebuilt from a shell that was left from allied bombing.
We ( except Max who once again opted to stay on the ground ) also climbed the adjacent Perlachturm for a superb view of the city.
The other interesting place here was the Fuggerei the first social housing in the world set up by Jakob Fugger ( I do not jest ) in 1521 as a social settlement for the needy of Augsburg. It is still in use for the same purpose today with 150 people housed in the 140 apartments. Not surprisingly there is a waiting list as the nominal rent excluding heating is still one Rhine Guilder per annum ( 0.88 Euros ) plus 3 prayers a day for the founder’s family !

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