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Comment by cubefox | Hacker News Reader

Now I wonder whether the rent changed.

Never changed, it’s still 88 cents per year. However utilities are not included so they make up the majority of the cost.

It is nonetheless extremely cheap (in comparison to rents in Augsburg and near-by Munich) and has life-changing consequences for the people living there, since they do not have to allocate a big amount of their income into housing.

In comparison: The average rent in Augsburg for a 60m³ flat is around 756 Euros (way more for new contracts and furnished flats), the median net income in Germany is ~ 2244 Euros.

One downside, if you're on the taller side, is that the doors in the Fuggerei are only like 5'8, though - and if you're taller than 6'4 or so, even the ceiling height becomes a problem. :D

I don't know why medieval homies built doors so short. They weren't short people. There's documented incidents of medieval kings accidentally dying from hitting their head on door lintels,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VIII_of_France#Death

- "Charles died in 1498, two and a half years after his retreat from Italy, as the result of an accident. While on his way to watch a game of jeu de paume (real tennis) in Amboise he struck his head on the lintel of a door.[22]."

This surprised me, as I'd heard otherwise. Per https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/how-tall-are-you/, "the average height of people who lived in the 9-11th centuries was comparable to ours today. It then declined slightly during the 12th through 16th centuries, and hit an all-time low during the 17th and 18th centuries – when those doorframes were made."

A 2.5 inch difference in mean heights isn't enormous, and I think doesn't fully explain what the parent comment was surprised by—the merely 5'8" (173 cm) tall doorframes in the Fuggerei. Considering individual variations, something like a quarter of medieval adults should be outright taller than that.

Perhaps they wanted to keep the heat in.

You should clarify that these are monthly figures, since the 88 cents rent quoted was the annual amount.

One Rhenish gulden was originally 3.8 grams of gold coin, that is 250 EUR in today's money.

Not much for a year long lease but not insignificant. I knew some subsidized properties charging that that much for a room.

The Wikipedia page says:

"As of 2020, the fee for a tour into the Fuggerei is 6.50 euro, over seven times the annual rent."

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