Augsburg Cathedral
The Cathedral – High Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Augsburg –is the cathedral of the diocese of Augsburg and one of the most popular sights of Augsburg. It goes back to the 8th century and has two towers, each 62 meters high. The imposing Romanesque-Gothic building stands out as a sacred beauty in the middle of the old city center of Augsburg and, with the St. Ulrich and Afra basilica and the Perlach Tower, is one of the tallest buildings in the historic old town. Even if the medieval furnishings of the cathedral were greatly decimated during the iconoclasm of the Reformation, the interior was considerably enriched through acquisitions. The five glass paintings, which represent the rest of an earlier extensive series and are among the oldest examples of their kind in Europe, are absolutely worth seeing. Other treasures are the painted friezes, the neo-Gothic altars with their panels by Hans Holbein the Elder, the gigantic representation of St. Christophorus from 1491, the late Gothic cloister and of course the famous Romanesque bronze portal, which once belonged to the previous cathedral and is now exhibited in the new diocesan museum. This museum is located right next to the cathedral and houses, among other things, the cathedral treasure.
Barefoot Church
According to youremailverifier, this Protestant church in Augsburg’s old town was designed in a Baroque and Gothic mix. The sacred building dates back to the 13th century and today, thanks to its rational shape, it contrasts in a fascinating way with the narrow streets around it. The former baptistery of Bertolt Brecht was almost completely destroyed in 1944 as a result of the British air raids and was later reconstructed in a simplified manner. Unfortunately, the entire interior was irretrievably destroyed, so that the interior of the Barefoot Church is rather plain.
Basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra
The catholic landmark of the southern old town with its tower crowned by a copper dome can be clearly seen from afar. The once so important pilgrimage church and Benedictine abbey church dates back to the 7th century and houses the remains of the two diocese saints St. Ulrich and St. Afra. Within the basilica there are several interesting chapels such as the Benediktuskapelle (= burial place for Octavianus Secundus Fugger), the Simpertus chapel (= contains the bones of St. Simpert) and the Andreas chapel (= burial place of Markus Fugger). The St. George’s Chapel, which was designed in 1480 and contains the objects of Georg Fugger, the Bartholomew’s Chapel for Philipp Eduard Fugger and his wife, and the Marian or Snail Chapel with the former high altar can also be added. The 1782 by Pope Pius VI. and visited by Pope John Paul II in 1987, the basilica is particularly impressive with its 93 meter high onion dome, the so-called “Afra tower.
Perlach Church (more precisely St. Peter am Perlach)
This Romanesque hall church is located on the Perlachberg right next to the Augsburg town hall. It was built in the 11th century and is characterized by the wonderful Perlach Tower, which, together with the aforementioned town hall, forms the landmark of the city of Augsburg. The most famous part of the church is a unique mural depicting the “Maria Untouching” and underlines the fact that St. Peter is the pilgrimage church of these saints, which offers many people the hope of solving their problems. Another specialty of the church is this Turamichele, the Archangel Michael, who appears once a year – namely on September 29th – in the lowest west window of the tower and then fights against the devil.
City Parish Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The largest Art Nouveau church in all of southern Germany, at around 100 years old, is downright young by Augsburg standards. The church, consecrated in 1910, is characterized by a neo-Romanesque facade and a 72-meter-high church tower and also impresses with its interior, which again reveals the rare Art Nouveau consistency.
St. Anna Church
The St. Anna Church, built in 1321, is located in a pedestrian zone and has been in the focus of tourists for a number of years, who have tended to ignore this place of worship for a long time. The almost modest-looking church offers, in addition to the cozy Annahof (with a café), in particular a strong reference to Martin Luther, who was in Augsburg in 1518 due to the revocation of his theses demanded by the papal side and who lived in the St. Anna Church during this time.
Synagogue Augsburg
This Jewish house of worship, built between 1914 and 1917 in Art Nouveau style, was set on fire by the National Socialists during the “Reichskristallnacht” in 1938, but was preserved when the fire was extinguished for fear of spreading to important buildings nearby. Renovated from 1976 to 1984, the Jewish Culture Museum Augsburg-Swabia was set up in 1985 in the synagogue and in 2006 a permanent exhibition on the history of the Jews in Augsburg and Swabia.
