Free housing - only if you are Catholic that is

[Z...]

I recently had opportunity to visit Fuggerei.

:
It is a walled enclave within the city of Augsburg, Bavaria. It takes it name from the Fugger family and was founded in 1516 by Jacob Fugger the Younger (known as "Jacob Fugger the Rich") as a place where the needy citizens of Augsburg could be housed. By 1523, 52 houses had been built, and in the coming years the area expanded with various streets, small squares and a church. The gates were locked at night, so the Fuggerei was, in its own right, very similar to a small independent medieval town. It is still inhabited today, affording it the status of being the oldest social housing project in the world.
The rent was and is still one Rheinischer Gulden per year (equivalent to 0.88 euros), as well as three daily prayers for the current owners of the Fuggerei - the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and the Nicene Creed. The conditions to live there remain the same as they were 480 years ago: one must have lived at least two years in Augsburg, be of the Catholic faith and have become indigent without debt. The five gates are still locked every day at 10 PM.

Housing units in the area consist of 500-700 square foot apartments, but because each unit has its own street entrance it simulates living in a house. There is no shared accommodation; each family has its own apartment, which includes a kitchen, a parlour, a bedroom and a tiny spare room, altogether totaling about 60 square metres. Ground-floor apartments all have a small garden and garden shed, while upper-floor apartments have an attic. All apartments have modern conveniences such as television and running water. One ground-floor apartment is uninhabited, serving as a museum open to the public. The doorbells have elaborate shapes, each being unique, dating back to before the installation of streetlights when residents could identify their unit by feeling the handle in the dark.

The Fugger family initially established their wealth in weaving and merchandising. Jakob the Rich expanded their interests into silver mining and trading with Venice. Additionally he was a financier and counted the Vatican as a notable client. The family became financial backers of the Habsburg family and he financed the successful election of Charles V as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519.[1]

The Fuggerei was first built between 1514 and 1523 under the supervision of the architect Thomas Krebs, and in 1582 Hans Holl added the church to the settlement: St. Mark's. Expanded further in 1880 and 1938, the Fuggerei today comprises 67 houses with 147 apartments, a well, and an administrative building.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's great-grandfather, the mason Franz Mozart, lived in the Fuggerei between 1681 and 1694, and is commemorated today by a stone plaque.

This would all be well and fine but every since I learned what was the condition to get a place in Fuggerei I just couldnt see the place as they were advertising it - generous gift for the poor.
I kept thinking of metaphysical implications of it all - imagine few hundred souls each day praying three times for Jacob the Rich i.e feeding him psychically.

The people still live there and they are all supposed to live happily ever-after and still paying 0.88 € as yearly rent. I cant say I felt this happy energy, from the moment I entered this old town and started strolling I felt this enormous energy pull, I became very depressed and gloomy and couldnt wait to get out of there.
Normally I don't suffer from such mood swings and I thought this was very odd. The culmination was when we walked in to the only building open for tourista as an exhibit and preserved in style of 18th century ( the others are internally modernised) I felt as if someone has pressed big stone on my shoulders and I almost wanted to cry with sheer desperation.
I managed to catch a glimpse of some of the inhabitants and they didn't strike me as very happy people at all.

This was one of the oddest experiences ever, I felt something similar in Rome but energy was more aggressive and violent, this was like walking through molasses. In any case I am still thinking about it so I though I'd share it here.