PIs it possible that someone in Europe already had a green policy eight centuries ago? Environmental sustainability, community health care, today they are concepts so topical that they are even taken for granted. However, in the ecological field we can see cities that are much ahead of others, because they have been dealing with relationships between humans and the environment for centuries. It is therefore right to ask ourselves what we can learn from their experience.
Augusta, city of water
A fascinating case is that of Augsburg-Augsburg, a Bavarian city among the oldest in Germanywhich owes its Latin name to the founder in the year 15 BC, the Roman emperor Augustus. Eight centuries ago, in full In the Middle Ages, the municipal authorities of Augusta designed a spring water distribution system – public and free – capable of keeping them clean and available to all, because it was already understood that safe, drinkable water would contribute to the health of citizens. Thus diseases and plagues decreased.
«An underground channel regulated the flow and kept the spring water for drinking separate from the river water used for work by the artisans. This system of division and distribution of water – drinking water and work water – was moved by 160 water wheels on the canals, in a 200 kilometer network of waterways” explains Sibylla Holtz, guide authorized to take visitors among the secrets of the City of Water. It was a true masterpiece of hydraulic engineering to protect public health and the environment, managed by the Water Guardians corporation, and remained active from the fifteenth century until 1879. Two of the Water Towers can still be visited. In 2019 Augusta Città d’Acqua became a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site.
Augusta, public housing in the Fuggerei district. (Getty Images)
At ecology school
Surrounded by forests and springs, today Augusta is a green city that teaches in every sense. For the wealth of urban greenery, cycle paths, recycled materials, water canals that enter the city like liquid arteries from the Lech and Wertach rivers, so much so that there are as many as 500 bridges in the city area. But Augusta also teaches because it has been able to valorise, explain and open the ancient Water System to everyone.
«The Chief Water Master was like a doctor who supervised the beating heart of the city: the wooden cogwheels that activated the pumps and pushed the water up, that is, up to the houses on the hill, so that no citizen had to go to drink in unsafe wells” adds Sibylla Holtz. Non the 16th century the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, visiting the city, praised the goodness of its water and the large number of fountains. Today we can admire the seventeenth-century monumental fountains adorned with statues of Augustus, Hercules and Mercury, inspired by a Flemish sculptor of the Italian school, Giambologna.
The wheel of a water mill in Augsburg. (Getty Images)
They are not the only works in the city influenced by Italy: in the Renaissance Town Hall, in fact, the famous Golden Hall is by the German Elias Holl who in Venice was seduced by the gold leaf roofing of the Doge’s Palace and by Palladio’s construction techniques . The façade of the City Hall, the Perlach Tower and other buildings on the Rathausplatz will be illuminated spectacularly for the Light Nights Festival 2023 (from 20 to 22 October).
Augusta, between bikes and foliage
Iconic point of the city, the Torre Rossa overlooked the aqueduct that brought drinking water to all citizens; today the Tower, which has functioned since 1416 for 463 years, shows its spectacular internal structure and also offers a beautiful panorama of the city from above. At the base there is a small rose garden, hortus conclusus in which to sit and rest, and all around a ring of greenery that embraces the historic centeroffering paths and cycle paths like a green ring road.
The Red Tower of Augsburg above the city’s ancient aqueduct. (Getty Images)
In the shadow of the tower the paved streets wind between the medieval houses, crowded around the Gothic church of St. Ulrich with its three precious golden altarsbuilt on the tomb of the martyr Saint Afra.
This was a neighborhood of artisans, like that one surrounded by the Lech canals where the playwright Bertold Brecht was born in a council house. Today the small museum dedicated to him displays period photographs and sets of his theatrical works. A few steps away, the organ of the evangelical Barfüsserkirche saw famous hands, such as those of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1777. His father Leopold Mozart’s house became an interactive museum in 2020which opens an interesting perspective on the controversial figure of Leopold, also a composer but above all a marketing man skilled in promoting his brilliant son.
Welfare in exchange for prayers
Throughout its history Augusta has been able to take care of the public good also from a socio-economic point of view. Thanks to visionaries such as the banker and textile merchant Jakob Fugger, who in 1521 created an unprecedented complex, the Fuggerei, complete with a church and obviously pumps for drinking water. The neighborhood – a surprising anticipation of welfare – was intended for ipoor people who only there could have decent accommodation at the symbolic cost of one florin per yearor, in exchange for saying three daily prayers for the Fugger family.
Jakobertor medieval gate in Augsburg. (Getty Images)
An institution that has incredibly maintained itself: today the oldest public housing district in the world, which also hosted Franz Mozart, Wolfgang’s great-grandfatherwelcomes needy people into its 140 apartments for 88 cents a year, all managed by the Fugger foundation. The Fuggerei is a city within the city, which preserves an ancient calm, exhibits the first house numbers of Augsburg on the doors and wrought iron pulls for the entrance bells, each different from the other, to recognize one’s home by touch in the dark of nights without electricity.
On the side of the trees
Nowadays welfare is also expressed by promoting presence of nature in daily life. «We are connecting the greenery of the street furniture with all the parks and public gardens, a total of 350 hectares, in order to create a green ring both inside and outside the city» says Anette Vedder, biologist and director of the Urban Green and Botanical Garden Department . «There is also an “Alliance for Trees”, an association that supports green causes and opposes the cutting of public green areas». The results are visible.
The inhabitants of Augusta can take advantage of a city forest, which this season is dressed in all shades of red and orange. Magnificent views where you can play sports, walk, cycling along the banks of the Lech and over the Hochablass Bridge, the main junction that conveys river water into urban canals. Furthermore, citizens can enjoy a five-hectare botanical garden with three thousand species. It is certainly a nature tamed by the hand of man, but not only for aesthetic purposes.
The Hochablass Bridge in Augsburg. (Getty Images)
The rose garden, the Italian one, the German baroque hedges that hide the vegetable garden: they are models for those who want to draw inspiration for a small domestic green space. Here you can also walk among the pavilions, waterfalls and mosses of the enchanting Japanese garden, inspired by the yin/yang principle. A place to increase one’s environmental awareness: «Our future project is the introduction of plants useful for the life of bees, educating people to do the same: I myself grow flowers specifically for bees in my garden» adds Anette Vedder. Philippine Welser, pharmacist-herbalist from Augsburg in the 16th century, and morganatic wife of Ferdinand II of Austria, would be proud of her: she left a book of over 200 herbal medicine recipes. Every now and then her spirit still walks here, in the medicinal herb garden similar to the one she cultivated.
Where to sleep in Augusta
Hotel Am Alten Park
Frölichstraße 17. In a complex that was the evangelical women’s diaconate of Augsburg. In the park, reconstructed Roman walls, tombstones, a garden of medicinal herbs and a beautiful restaurant with terrace. Double room in B&B €120. hotel-am-alten-park.de
Hotel Maximilian’s
Maximilianstraße 40. Very central, in a renovated historic building. The Sartory restaurant has one Michelin star. Double room from €260. hotelmaximilians.com
A fountain in Augsburg. (Getty Images)
Where to eat
Riegele
Frölichstraße 26. The tavern and brewery, among the oldest in Europe. Traditional dishes: frankfurters, knodel, wiener schnitzel and beers for all tastes, from weizen to those aged in barrels for 12 months. riegele.de
Dede café
Auf dem Rain 6. Beautiful place from the fourth generation of a Turkish family. Young audience, intellectual environment, borek (cake
of vegetables) at will. In front of Brecht’s house. dedecafe.business.site
Earth and flavours
Fuggerstraße 12. In the covered market, among the stalls of German delicacies, there is the small place of Monia Morena, from Veneto. Cicchetti, pasta and cold dishes. terraesapori.metro.bar
König von Flandern
Maximilianstraße 25. The oldest gasthaus in the city. Wood, large counter where rivers of beer are poured and a robust menu, including beer sausages and cheese späzle. koenigvonflandern.de
What to buy
Hutsalon Am Sun
Frauentorstraße 9. A 1921 shop selling hats handmade by the owner. hutsalon.de
Dichtl
Maximilianstraße 18. The best patisserie in Augsburg, with an irresistible choice of chocolate. dichtl.de
INFO
Tourism Board: augsburg-tourismus.de/it
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