Augsburg
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Water Management System Of Augsburg (2019); A Roman Foundation With The Fuggerei Social Housing Of 1521, Still Occupied, The Golden Hall And Canals Through The Lechviertel · Augsburg, Bavaria
Augsburg is one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded as a Roman camp and rich enough by 1500 that the Fugger banking family financed emperors from it. Two things make it worth the forty-minute train ride from Munich. The first is the Fuggerei, a walled almshouse quarter completed in 1521 which still houses people today for a nominal annual rent - not a museum piece but a working settlement, and the oldest social housing in the world still in use. The second is the water system inscribed by UNESCO in 2019: canals threading through the Lechviertel, water towers at the Rotes Tor, bronze fountains along Maximilianstrasse, and the fact that Augsburg separated drinking water from service water centuries before most of Europe thought to. Add the Golden Hall in the town hall, a cathedral with some of the oldest figurative stained glass anywhere, and Mozart's father's house, and you have a solid day. It is a working Swabian city rather than a picture-book one, and the Romantic Road runs straight through it.
Augsburg old town, from the Rathaus and Maximilianstrasse to the Fuggerei, Swabia, Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany
Streets, canals and the Fuggerei's lanes are walkable in daylight; the Fuggerei gates are locked overnight, as they have been for five centuries, and residents pay a small late fee to be let in. The Fuggerei charges entry by day, roughly from mid-morning to late afternoon, with shorter winter hours - confirm. The Golden Hall in the Rathaus opens daily unless the room is booked for a civic function, which happens without much notice. Museums follow the usual German pattern of Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays. The cathedral and St Ulrich are free and open daily but close to sightseers during services. Confirm current times and prices with each operator.