Portrait of Jacob Fugger the rich man by Albrecht Durer

Portrait of Jacob Fugger the rich man by Albrecht Durer

The portrait of Jacob Fugger the rich man is interesting not only for his artistic merits. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the influence of the dynasty of seafarers Welser and Fugger bankers, who invested huge money in the development of America’s newly discovered America, intensified in Augsburg. But the bankers have become famous and forever entered the history of Augsburg as the founders of the world’s first social housing for the poor.

Fuggeray – the main attraction of Ausburg was founded in 1516 by Jacob Fugger the rich man and his brother. These are 67 small, neat, ivy-tended houses in a cozy courtyard surrounded by a wall with a gate. Only a poor Augsburg citizen of the Catholic faith could get here with a clean past. The tenant was to pay annually one Rhine gulden for housing and three times a day to pray for the founders – the Fugger brothers.

The quarter has survived, it is very beautiful and there still live poor inhabitants of Augsburg for a nominal fee and three times a day they offer prayers of thanks to the Fugger family.

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