Sights in Augsburg Inner City

In 1623 city architect Elias Holl began work on the hospital building The Hospice of the Holy Spirit. This Renaissance style structure is home to the Augsburg Puppet Theater, where fairy tales, plays and cabaret adaptations have been performed since 1948. The Puppet Theater Museum displays its most famous characters and also offers English language tours.

The Ottonic cathedral was built around 1000 CE on top of a Carolingian structure from which the crypt is preserved. Five Romanesque stained glass “prophets windows” from 1065 are the oldest figurative stained glass cycle in the world. In the 14th and 15th centuries a Gothic chancel and two important figural portals were added to the church. The cathedral contains hundreds of artisically crafted tombstones from 1285.

The waterworks at the Red Gate is an ensemble of three water towers, two fountain master houses and an aqueduct which had its beginnings in 1416. The waterworks were in operation until 1879. The exhibition in the small and large water towers and in the fountain master’s house describes the system of water wheel powered piston pumps which were used. The Swabian Craftsmen Museum is in the lower fountain master’s house.

St. Anne’s was founded as a Carmelite monastery in 1321. The church’s baroque sanctuary was completed in 1749. It contains the Gold Smith’s chapel and the Fugger Mausoleum, Bavaria’s first Renaissance structure and Jakob Fugger’s burial place. In 1518 Martin Luther stayed at the monastery and his famous portrait by Lucas Cranach is shown. The Luther Steps museum outlines the history of the Reformation in Augsburg.

City architect Elias Holl built a Renaissance style weapons arsenal onto the grain storage hall for the imperial city in 1607. The imposing bronze figures “War in Heaven” by Hans Reichle tower over the portal of the east entrance. Inside there is a permanent exhibition “Roman Camp” in the Tuscan pillared hall, which shows outstanding artifacts of the provincial capital Roman city, Augusta Vindelicum.

Adjacent to the Cathedral on Fronhof a plaque on the facade of the Bishop’s residence commemorates the Augsburg Confession where it was read in 1530. In the Fronhof park, which was once a place for tournaments, there are two modern monuments to the Mozarts, Leopold Mozart, who was born in Augsburg in 1719 and his son Wolfgang Amade.

In two patrician palace the Maximilian museum presents the cultural history of the city with Augsburg’s silver, sculpture, scientific instruments, clocks, porcelain, and pottery as well as the city historical collection. The monumental original bronzes of Augustus, Mercury and Hercules fountains are displayed In the glass covered Viermetzhof courtyard. The museum’s collection of models is unparalleled worldwide.

From 1913 to 1917 the architects Loempel and Landauer erected the Augsburg Synogogue. The stylistically eclectic structure is one of the most significant of its kind in Europe. Due to the arsen induced fire in 1938, there was a lengthy post war restoration of the synogogue completed in 1985 named Jewish Cultural Museum of Augsburg-Swabia. The museum documents the history of the Jewish communities in Bavarian Swabia.

Bertolt Brecht, creator of the “Three Penny Opera” and “Mother Courage and her Children” was born in the Brechthaus in 1898. The commemorative plaque on the facade of the craftman’s house “Auf dem Rain 7” in the Lech quarter is a reminder of the city’s famous son. The museum’s permanent exhibition documents his formative years in Augsburg, his life and his work.