The name “Fugger” can be found today in history books and school
books all over the world. The most famous member of this family was
the Renaissance merchant, the mining industry businessman and banker
Jakob Fugger the Rich (1459 to 1525). The network of subsidiaries
of the Fugger business empire spread out throughout Europe. The Fugger
Company also traded with India, South America and Africa. The most
famous customers were the various Popes, the emperors Maximilian
I, Karl V and Ferdinand I of Habsburg, the kings of Germany, Spain
and Portugal, England and Hungary as well as the Medici family of
Florence. Under Anton Fugger, the nephew and successor to Jakob Fugger,
the company assets reached their highest level in 1546.
In 1521 Jakob Fugger donated the now world famous “Fuggerei“,
the oldest social settlement in existence in the world, together
with the Fugger Choir in Augsburg’s Annakirche designed by Albrecht
Duerer. Buildings and artistic works of the Fuggers can be found
today in several countries of Europe. The most important sights
to see in the Bavarian region of Swabia are in Augsburg the Fuggerei,
the Fugger Chapel in the Annakirche, the Fugger houses (including
the Ladies’ Courtyard) and the Fugger Funereal Chapels in the Ulrich
Basilica and in the areas around the Fugger Castles in Kirchheim
and Babenhausen (both in Unterallgäu) and also the Thekla Church
in Welden (Augsburg Rural District). Also in other places formerly
under Fugger rule there are a number of extremely well designed churches
of pilgrimage such as in Biberbach (Augsburg Rural District) or
in Kirchhaslach (Unterallgäu Rural District).
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