13 Best Sights in Augsburg, The Romantic Road

Augsburg's town hall was Germany's largest when it was built in the early 1600s; it's now regarded as the finest secular Renaissance structure north of the Alps. Its huge and opulent 14-meter (45-feet) tall Goldener Saal (Golden Hall) was finished in 1643. Open to the public (except during official city functions), the tower was given its name because of its rich decoration: 8 pounds of 23k gold is spread over its wall frescoes, carved pillars, and coffered ceiling.

This children's puppet theater next to Rotes Tor has been an institution in Germany from its inception in 1948, and it's still loved by kids and parents alike. The museum features puppets in historic or fairy-tale settings. Check the website for puppet-show times (held near-daily, though only in German).

This modest artisan's house was the birthplace of the renowned playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), author of Mother Courage and The Threepenny Opera. It's now a museum documenting his life and work.

Augsburg's imposing cathedral contains the oldest cycle of stained glass in central Europe and important paintings by local resident Hans Holbein the Elder, which adorn the altar. The celebrated stained-glass windows from the 11th century are on the south side of the nave and depict the prophets Jonah, Daniel, Hosea, Moses, and David. Originally built in the 9th century, the cathedral stands out because of its square Gothic towers, products of a 14th-century update. A 10th-century Romanesque crypt also remains from the cathedral's early years. Those celebrated stained-glass windows, from the 11th century, are on the south side of the nave and depict prophets Jonah, Daniel, Hosea, Moses, and David.

A short walk from the cathedral takes you to the quiet courtyards and small raised garden of the former episcopal residence, a series of 18th-century baroque and rococo buildings that now serve as the Swabian regional government offices. To the back of the cathedral at Kornhausg. 3–5 is the Diocese Museum of St. Afra, where the cathedral's treasures are on display.

This museum, housed in a fine restored Renaissance building, is dedicated to two of the city's most influential benefactors, the Fugger and Welser families, whose banking and merchant empire brought Italian art and world artifacts along with wealth to Augsburg in the 15th to 18th centuries. Providing insight into how the families contributed to the city, the museum offers both a glimpse into life in the 15th century through the Industrial Revolution, and a hands-on lesson in Augsburg history.

The world's oldest social housing project, this settlement was established by the wealthy Fugger family in 1516 to accommodate employees of the family's textile mills and Augsburg's deserving poor. The 67 homes with 140 apartments still serve the same purpose and house about 150 people today. It's financed almost exclusively from the assets of the Fugger family foundation, because the annual rent of "one Rhenish guilder" (€1) hasn't changed, either. Residents must be Augsburg citizens, Catholic, and destitute through no fault of their own—and must pray three times daily for their original benefactors, the Fugger family. The most famous resident was Mozart's great-grandfather. You can view model apartments at Ochsengasse 51 for a fee, or view the settlement from the exterior from the outside free of charge. The Fuggerei was mostly destroyed during World War II, but it was rebuilt according to original plans, although with such modern conveniences as heating and electricity. Many residents survived Allied bombings by escaping to the little underground shelter the Fugger family had the foresight to build; today, it is a small wartime museum worth making part of your visit.

The 16th-century house and business quarters of the Fugger family now has a restaurant in its cellar and offices on the upper floors. Only the three courtyards here are open to the public, but you can peek into the ground-floor entrance to see busts of two of Augsburg's most industrious Fuggers, Raymund and Anton. Beyond a modern glass door is the Damenhof (Ladies' Courtyard), originally reserved for the Fugger women.

Housed in a 1917 synagogue which escaped major damage on Kristallnacht (night of the broken glass) in 1938, it was restored in the 1990s both for religious services and as a cultural center for theater and concert performances; the glorious blue and gold domed ceiling provides excellent acoustics. The museum tells the story of centuries of Jewish life in Augsburg before WWII, including famous residents. Most notable is the Peter Lamfrom family, who was a shirtmaker in this textile town. The family escaped in 1938, winding up in Portland, Oregon, where he named his new clothing company after the local Columbia River. Daughter Gert (Gertrude) and her husband grew the business into the Columbia Sportswear Company.

Augsburg's main museum houses a permanent exhibition of Augsburg arts and crafts, including sculptures and gold and silver handicrafts, in a 16th-century merchant's mansion, focusing on the medieval, renaissance and industrial revolution periods when the city was one of the most wealthy and influential in Bavaria and Europe.

Leopold Mozart---father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart---was born in this house, and lived here until moving to Salzburg at age 18 to continue his music education. Leopold was already a composer and teacher, which shaped his influence on his even more talented son. The museum is nine rooms on three floors, filled with original letters, compositions, musical instruments and other artifacts of Leopold and his more famous son. One of the rooms is a small Baroque theater.

This plastered brick bell tower has foundations dating to AD 989, when it was constructed as a watchtower, and is now part of the Church of St. Peter of Perlach, built in the 1600s. Climb the 258 stairs to the top of the 230-foot tower for gorgeous views of Augsburg and the countryside. Just be sure to time it to avoid being beneath the bells when they chime.

This elegant 18th-century city palace was built by the von Liebenhofens, a family of wealthy bankers. Schaezler was the name of a baron who married into the family. Today the palace rooms contain the Deutsche Barockgalerie (German Baroque Gallery), a major art collection that features works of the 17th and 18th centuries. The palace adjoins the former church of a Dominican monastery. A steel door behind the banquet hall leads into another world of high-vaulted ceilings, where the Staatsgalerie Altdeutsche Meister, a Bavarian state collection, highlights old-master paintings, among them a Dürer portrait of one of the Fuggers. 

Standing at the highest point of the city, this Catholic basilica with an attached Protestant chapel symbolizes the Peace of Augsburg, the treaty that ended the religious struggle between the two groups. On the site of a Roman cemetery where St. Afra was martyred in AD 304, the original structure was built in the late-Gothic style in 1467. St. Afra is buried in the crypt, near the tomb of St. Ulrich, a 10th-century bishop who helped stop a Hungarian army at the gates of Augsburg in the Battle of the Lech River. The remains of a third patron of the church, St. Simpert, are preserved in an elaborate side chapel. From the steps of the magnificent altar, look back along the high nave to the finely carved, wrought-iron-and-wood baroque railing that borders the entrance. As you leave, look into the separate but adjacent church of St. Ulrich, the baroque preaching hall that was added for the Protestant community in 1710, after the Reformation.