Heidelberg Castle, Germany

Tweet

More than 1 million tourists from all over the world visit the city of Heidelberg in the south of Germany each year. A visit is not complete without getting up to the castle. You can walk up a short and very steep alleyway, an even steeper flight of stairs or take the funicular up to the castle. It's only a ride of two minutes and quite disappointing because you are in a tunnel all the time. Our sightseeing tour starts at a stone gate which stands forlornly on a piece of grass, not attached to a building. It’s just a gate ‘per se’, a gate in its own right, so-to-speak. When I studied in Heidelberg I had a room in a house in the street running above the castle and in summer when I slept with the windows open I didn’t need an alarm clock, because at 8 o’clock sharp I would wake up to polyglot cries of “Ah’s” and “Oh’s” - the guides always start their tours there and explain that the gate was built in one night as a birthday present for a princess. We then look to the left and see a big round tower which extracts cries of excitement only of British visitors who know about their cultural heritage. In 1613 King Frederic V married Elizabeth Stuart, the eldest daughter of King James VI and on the occasion of the wedding Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” was performed here. A wonderful setting indeed! The castle is in ruins, but it was not destroyed during the Second World War as many tourists assume. Mostly this presumption is correct when you see ruins in Germany, but not here. The castle was first destroyed in the 30 Years’ War and then, after its reconstruction, again in the second half of the 17th century by the French in the course of a war of succession between the kings of the Palatine and the French. For some time it was misused as a quarry to build new houses in the town. Some buildings which weren’t destroyed too much were renovated and now you can find all kinds of festivities there: dinner banquets, balls, concerts, theatre performances. You can even rent the courtyard for a festivity, fireworks included. Let’s enter the castle proper and admire the ‘most beautiful Renaissance buildings north of Italy’! You can make a guided tour through the interior, you can have a look at the biggest wine barrel of the world (221 726 litres), but you MUST have a look from the terrace. Go find the devil's footprint which he made when he had to jump out of a maiden's room in order not to be discovered! You look down at the river Neckar, see the Old Bridge, the narrow streets, the houses nestling round the Holy Ghost Church, see the buildings of the Old and the New University. After this you may stroll through the gardens to the Great Terrace and look at the castle from a distance and beneath it the town centre which you should visit, too, of course. ----- P.S. Follow the wall round the castle to the right. Where it ends, move straight up. You'll see a house partly hidden by trees. That's where I lived for four years. ----- Photo: soini-asset.com