The house with the “secret toilet”

The house is in Nuremberg’s old town. It has four floors: the two lower floors are made of stone, and the upper floors are half-timbered. Albrecht Dürer, one of the most important artists ever to have worked in Germany, lived here 500 years ago.

Albrecht Dürer bought this house in 1509. He lived here with his wife, his mother, his brother, and his apprentices and assistants. He also used it as a workshop. Dürer worked in this house until his death on 6 April 1528.

After Dürer’s death, the house changed hands frequently. Today it belongs to the city of Nuremberg, and guided tours and exhibitions are held there. In the rooms of the house, you can learn about the painter and his work. You can also get an impression of how people lived in Dürer’s time.

Albrecht Dürer was born in Nuremberg in 1471, the son of a goldsmith. He had 17 siblings, only three of whom survived. His father took him into his workshop at an early age to train him as a goldsmith. But it soon became clear that his son had a talent for drawing. He worked for several years as an apprentice to the famous Nuremberg painter Michael Wolgemut.

He then set off on his first longer journey, which took him to the Upper Rhine. In 1494, he married Agnes Frey, the daughter of a respected burgher. They had no children. From October 1494 to May 1495, Albrecht Dürer travelled to Italy. After returning, he set up his own workshop in Nuremberg. He now mainly painted portraits commissioned by wealthy merchants and princes, which sold well.

In 1505, he set off on a trip to Venice, where he stayed for about two years and met some of the leading Italian painters of the time. After returning to Nuremberg, he was appointed to the city council in 1509. That year, he also bought the house near Nuremberg Castle. He now devoted himself mainly to woodcuts and engravings.

One of his patrons and supporters was the emperor at the time, Maximilian I. Two months before her death, Dürer drew his own mother. It was probably the first portrait of a terminally ill person. In 1520, the painter traveled to the Netherlands, where he was celebrated as a famous and respected artist.

In Antwerp, he was even offered a beautiful house and a fixed annual salary. But he turned it down and returned to Nuremberg. In the last years of his life, he oversaw the design of Nuremberg’s town hall. Among other works, he created panels featuring life-size figures of the apostles Paul and Peter and the evangelists Mark and John.