Sunday, July 8, 2018

The Fuggerei: world's oldest housing complex where rents haven't gone up for 500 years.

The Fuggerei is named after its founder Jakob Fugger who was a wealthy merchant in the 15th century. He's considered the wealthiest man in history by new math that compares his wealth then to new wealth now. Recalculated, today his worth would be 400 billion.

He started building an almshouse in 1514, a gated community with duplexes that face the street and are situated back to back with small gardens between them. The perimeter walls have a lot of gates but they're closed to non residents between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM.

You have to be Catholic or no apartment for you.

The rent is 1 guilder a year. While the residents are obliged to pray once a day for the Fugger family. There are additional costs. Residents have to pay 88 cents for the upkeep of the local church and 85 Euro for maintenance and heating bills. The fuggerei is still administered by the descendants of the Fugger family and financed through a foundation.

Then there's the Housing Association fees, gardening fees, public street fees, town crier fees, Pied Piper vermin control fees, cobblestone replacement fees, compulsory archery fees, jousting tournament fees, thatching fees, chamber pot disposal fees, ice delivery fees, hallucinogenic bread fees, water-carrying fees.

A tour of the place cost 4 X the annual rent. So that would be like what, 4 gilders. Whatever those are.

A lot more detailed information plus pictures of charming row houses all covered in ivy.

Place got tore up during WWII. (I bet that was us.)

Amusing Planet.

TURN DOWN THAT MUSIC!

I'm busy praying for the Fuggers.


15 comments:

edutcher said...

Descended from the world's clumsiest tribe, the Fugawi Indians.

Every morning, they'd wake up and ask each other, "Where the Fugawi?".

The Dude said...

His mother's name is widely used in America even today.

ricpic said...

Celebrate The Rich, Not Diversity

This just proves my own private thesis --
All good comes from the sons of Croesus.

john said...

You forgot the fee for the wheelbarrow guy who hauls the dead bodies to the dump.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"pay the piper" saying...

google: Where did the term pay the piper come from?
It originates from the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The town of Hamelin agrees to pay the Piper to get rid of all the rats. When they fail to pay him, he steals their kids. The earliest known reference, according to the article, is from AD1300.

chickelit said...

Check out the inset nooks inside. Cooler even than Sixty’s phone nook.

chickelit said...

I like the way the words Fugger and Fuggerei interrelate. The “rei” suffix is equivalent to our “y” suffix. For example baker —> bakery.

XRay said...

educhter:john; lol. Getting old, had to look up Croesus.

The Dude said...

@CL - thanks for clarifying that - that suffix had been bugging me...

chickelit said...

“@CL - thanks for clarifying that - that suffix had been bugging me...”

What do you suppose happens at a “ Buggerei”?

chickelit said...

@Sixty: The German word Scheißerei usually means Durchfall but it can also mean “shit storm” as in a FUBAR situation.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Troop may have found an alternative to Brooklyn!

MamaM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MamaM said...

lol. Getting old, had to look up Croesus

I was on my way to the wiki to look up Jacob's mother's widely used name, before the shoe dropped on that one.

The Dude said...

LOL - sorry about that MamaM. That was uncouth of me. Such is the way of my people.