Wasserkraftwerk am Stadtbach

Augsburg goes back to Roman times, and it has always had plenty of water, thanks to the Lech and the Wertach. Over more than a thousand years, the city has cut artificial canals that carry river water straight into the streets. The Wasserkraftwerk am Stadtbach stands on one of these canals. You could walk past its plain industrial exterior without a second look. It belongs to the city's water management system, a network of waterworks, fountains and power stations that UNESCO lists as World Heritage.

Each plant along these waterways works the same way: flowing water spins a turbine that generates power. Before electricity, the same flow turned mill wheels that ground grain and powered workshops. By the mid-sixteenth century, drinking water and industrial water ran in separate channels, an arrangement well ahead of its time. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that steady supply carried the textile factories through their boom years. Special officials kept the whole network clean and in repair, and it grew as factories asked for more power. The wider system also takes in historic water towers and housing built for factory workers. Some of these places, like the Fuggerei, still welcome visitors.

The turbines are still turning, driven by the canal's current, so the plant remains a working part of the city. If you wander the old town, you keep crossing the canals, and they give the streets much of their atmosphere. The water in them flows on and eventually rejoins the Lech, one of the region's main rivers.