The family business included a huge empire of stockhouses, factories and banks, and later mines.
Fugger insisted that the rent should never change and it hasnt, even after five hundred years.
Even in Fuggers time, the rent was more of a symbolic fee.
Daily recitation of The Lords Prayer for the founders remains part of the house rules.
The Fuggerei was completed between 1514 and 1523.
During this time only residents may enter or exit the Fuggerei.
Within this complex are rows of housing units facing the streets and aligned back to back.
The steep roofs serve as attics for both families and there is no cellar.
On the back of each house is a small garden.
Even the fee for a tour into the Fuggerei costs over four times the annual rent.
However, there areother fees involved.
The Fuggerei is still administered by the descendants of the Fugger family and financed through a foundation.
Photo credit:Tiia Monto/Wikimedia
A plaque commemorating Mozart’s grandfather’s house in the Fuggerei.
Photo credit:Jennifer Boyer/Flickr
One of the apartments was converted into a museum.
Here we can see a medieval kitchen with table, chair, stove and stone block floor.
Photo credit:PlusONE/Shutterstock
Photo credit:PlusONE/Shutterstock
