Augsburg, Germany Summary

Only 60km northwest of Munich, AUGSBURG certainly doesn’t suffer from any inferiority complexes, despite being no more than a quarter of its size. Founded in 15 BC as Augusta Vindelicorum by two stepsons of Augustus, the city is one of the oldest in Germany. A Free Imperial City from 1276 and a frequent choice for meetings of the Diet, Augsburg had its heyday between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Fugger and Welser dynasties made it Europe’s most important centre of high finance. As a result it grew into one of the largest cities on the continent. It was the one major city in Germany to take the Renaissance style to its heart, and the highly individualistic buildings of Elias Holl, who served as municipal architect from 1602 until 1635, still dominate the townscape.