Published on: 3 January 2017  | Last updated: 3 November 2018

Overview

The first part of the Via Claudia is a gentle cruise south south through Bayern (Bavaria) heading for the Alps. The main highlights are the inter­esting and pretty towns of Augsburg and Lech am Landsberg.

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Distances
Donauwörth - Augsburg	48 kms
Augsburg - Landsberg am Lech	49 kms

Route description

The route starts in Donauwörth on the Danube (Donau) river. Initially it heads through through open countryside before turning east to pick up an unsur­faced bike path along the left (western) bank of the Lech river.

The path along the Lech will take you past Augsburg, but it would be a shame to miss it. The city was heavily bombed during the war but has been carefully restored and is a relaxed and charming place to wander round. It's also pretty easy to ride around. My favourite bits were the Stadtmarkt and the little streets behind its renais­sance Rathaus (town hall).

Meet the Fuggers

Perhaps the most inter­esting place to visit in Augsburg is the Fuggerei.

The Fuggers were a family of merchants who grew rich trading along the Via Claudia Augusta and the Donau. Jakob Fugger the Younger became banker to the Vatican and the Emperor Maximilian.

The Fuggerei (en.wikipedia.org) is a community of houses built 500 years ago by a charitable found­ation estab­lished by the Fugger family to provide housing for the less well-off citizens of Augsburg (including Mozart's great grand­father) . It is the world's oldest social housing project.

The rents were (and are) fixed at the equivalent of less than one euro —plus three prayers a day.

One intriguing feature is that each doorway has a unique bell pull so that residents could identify their door in the dark.

One of the apart­ments in the community has been turned into a museum so you can see it as it originally would have been. There's also an exhib­ition about the Fuggers and about the recon­struction of the Fuggerei after the bombing of Augsburg in 1944 —70 per cent of it was destroyed but it was rebuilt by the found­ation and its residents.

Augsburg towards Landsberg am Lech

The Via Claudia continues along the Lech before crossing the river at the Hochblass barrage. It then parts company with the river and continues on a combin­ation of cycleways and quiet roads.

The official route bypasses Landsberg am Lech completely, but if you want to visit it you can turn off the route at Erpfting and follow a cycleway that takes you pretty much all the way into the centre of Landsberg. Alternatively you could continue on the D9 cycle route south from the Hochblass barrage. The D9 sticks more closely to the river, but is unsur­faced.

Landsberg am Lech

I loved Landsberg am Lech. It's quite possibly the most attractive town on the whole route (OK, strictly speaking it's not actually on the route).

Don't miss the Mariä Himmelfahrt church or the medieval gates.

Articles in this series

• The Via Claudia in Germany and Austria: Overview
• Via Claudia Part 1: Donauwörth to Landsberg Am Lech
• Via Claudia Part 2: Landsberg am Lech to Füssen
• Via Claudia Part 3: Füssen to Imst
• Via Claudia Part 4: Along the valley of the Inn
• The Via Claudia in Italy: Overview
• Via Claudia Part 5: The Vinschgau
• Via Claudia Part 6: Algund to Trento
• Via Claudia Part 7: Trento to the Lago di Caldonazzo
• Via Claudia 8: San Cristoforo al Lago to Feltre via the Valsugana
• Via Claudia Part 9: the Valsugana cycleway to Bassano del Grappa
• Via Claudia Part 10: San Cristoforo al Lago to Feltre via the Passo Croce d’Aune
• Via Claudia Part 11: Feltre to Treviso
• Via Claudia Part 12: Treviso to Altino (and Venezia)
• Via Claudia Part 13: Trento to Verona and Ostiglia