Heidelberg - A Journey to One of Germany’s Most Romantic Cities

Hello friends. During my trip to Germany, I had the chance to explore a romantic city called Heidelberg. It's a very old and interesting place. It also hosts the oldest university in Germany within its current borders. Historically it was the capital of the Palatinate, as the Palatinate principality was located here.

We naturally started our visit at the Old Bridge, crossing the Neckar River. The Neckar gets its waters from the Black Forest and flows into the Rhine River near Mannheim. This part of the river is suitable for boat traffic. There are some vaporettos and a lot of locks along the way.

The first bridge at this location was built in 1284, but the current stone bridge was constructed later. Through these gates, we symbolically enter the Palatinate principality. The gates are flanked by two towers, each adorned with baroque-style domes. Despite their age these gates are associated with an event from 1693, when King Louis XIV of France, also known as the Sun King decided to seize the riches and beauty of this region. He came, destroyed everything, set the place ablaze and left no stone unturned. You can still see the destruction in the castle ruins. It’s a scene of devastation.

Of course, we also visited the castle. One particularly interesting story involves a rather unusual statue. Not a historical or baroque sculpture, but a monkey statue known as the scapegoat monkey. Many legends and speculations surround this monkey. Some say it symbolizes a scapegoat and you can see yourself as a mischievous monkey doing bad deeds. Others say the statue was erected specifically to moon the neighbors across the river. Either way, it’s definitely something out of the ordinary. The monkey is holding a circular object. Some say it’s a mirror and you can put your head inside it to see your reflection.

A bit further on we arrived at Marktplatz or the market square. There are a few interesting spots here: a charming baroque-style town hall and the typical tightly-packed houses found in medieval German towns. This layout is due to the French invasion, during which they flattened this small town. Locals then rebuilt on the old foundations. So, while the layout remained the same, the houses were reconstructed starting in the 15th century. By the 16th century, the baroque style was dominant everywhere. You can see the German baroque style here too, but one house stands out. It is one of the few stone buildings that survived the French attack and it belonged to Charles Belier. Perhaps it was spared because the owner was likely of French origin. Today it houses the Hotel of the Knight and the building is quite striking, built entirely from the local red sandstone. The same stone used to construct the castle.

This same material was also used to build the Church of the Holy Spirit, a Gothic-style church that cuts through the square and stands opposite the hotel. I've seen many Gothic churches on my travels, but what makes this one unique is that it has commercial shops at its base. Today these shops sell souvenirs, but in the past people used to buy food here. This makes sense since it’s a market square. On some shop walls, you can even see pretzel standards carved into the stone. Each pretzel has a crown on it,likely the electoral crown. The electors would determine the size and price of pretzels based on harvest conditions and these standards could change annually depending on the yield. I found this really fascinating.I've never seen anything like it before.

When it comes to the interior decoration of the Church of the Holy Spirit, there’s not much grandeur, except for one striking detail. Some of the windows are decorated with modern stained glass, meaning there’s a contrast between historical stained glass on one side and modern ones on the other. Interestingly one modern stained-glass window is actually on the historical side. Installed in 1984, it’s called the Physics Window. It references Einstein’s law of conservation of energy and the date of the Hiroshima bombing. The artist wanted to show that physics contains both knowledge and destruction. Physics, as much as it is about understanding, can also bring devastation. It's a sad truth, but one that deserves to be acknowledged and applauded. The presence of modern stained glass is a relatively new feature. There’s also a viewing terrace in the church, naturally located in the tower, but it’s only open from April to October. If you ever visit Heidelberg, make sure to go up. It offers a stunning view of the old town. If you turn left toward the castle and walk through the castle gardens, you’ll get the best views of both the city and the castle.

The castle itself is clearly in ruins and hasn’t been restored. No one took on the task in the 16th century because the prince-electors were no longer around. Still, you can clearly see the blend of styles and structures from different periods. Every time a new ruler came to power, he would rebuild or add to the palace. So, some of the towers are purely medieval, while others are more modern: either Renaissance or German Renaissance. Overall, the structure has a richly textured appearance. Among ruins, this is actually one of the best-preserved castles. The roofs and windows may be missing, but the silhouettes of the buildings are almost entirely intact. I’ve never seen destruction like this before, half of one tower has completely broken off and slid down. Whatever was holding it together back then must have given out. Maybe it was an explosion or maybe a landslide. The look is textured, fascinating and strangely beautiful.

The castle blends elements from various eras in the historical timeline: one section is purely medieval, another is more modern and there’s even an Italian-style courtyard. The state of the castle is also a mix: some parts have windows, others don’t. I’m not sure how that happened, but the view from the balcony is absolutely gorgeous. There’s another quirky detail on the balcony that amused me while reading about Heidelberg. On one of the stones, there’s the imprint of a boot or shoe. Two legends explain it: one is sweet and fairy-tale-like. During a palace fire, a princess was trapped and called for help. A knight rushed in, rescued her and jumped from the balcony, leaving the imprint behind. The other version is a bit bolder. The prince had gone hunting, the princess was bored and she invited a knight over for a romantic rendezvous. But the weather turned, the prince came home early and caught them. Not wanting to disgrace the princess, the knight jumped out the window, leaving his mark behind.

As charming as these romantic tales are, what really drew me to the castle was something else. The world’s largest wine barrel. When you enter you first see a large barrel. But that’s not the biggest one. The largest is further inside and it’s absolutely massive. It’s still standing and it was actually used to hold wine. 220.000 liters of it. That’s honestly mind-blowing. It’s hard to grasp the scale from pictures, but to give you an idea: the height of the barrel roughly matches my own. It was built from 130 oak trunks. There used to be an even bigger one. 250.000 liters, but it broke apart. This one survived. It was used to collect wine paid as tax, in a kind of tithe system. Villagers would bring their wine as tribute. Then this mix was drunk, enjoyed, celebrated, parties were held and people danced. They even built a platform on top of the barrel that could hold six couples comfortably.

During the reign of Prince Karl Philipp, all the festivities were overseen by the court jester, Perkeo. His real name was Klemens, but the people called him Perkeo. Why? Because whenever someone said, Klemens have a drink, he’d reply Perché no? (Italian for Why not?). Since the locals didn’t understand Italian, they just started calling him Perkeo. He’s something of a mythological figure. He was said to drink up to 15 bottles of wine a day. One time someone played a prank on him and gave him water instead. He drank it and got poisoned. A tragic story.

What I didn’t expect to find in a place like this was a fascinating institution: the German Pharmacy Museum. Normally, places like this are kind of boring. Just some photos a few bottles, maybe a scalpel or two. But this one is made up of actual, historical pharmacies. For example, there’s one from a Benedictine monastery, complete with statues of Hygieia and Asclepius. The goddess of hygiene and the god of health. There’s a Baroque-style pharmacy, one in Empire style... Taken together, it’s like a design journal of pharmacy interiors from different historical periods. Very cool. There’s also a working lab where medicines were made. Back then, medicines were mostly made from plants, roots and flowers. Methods included vaporizing, pressing, mixing and voilà, medicine. Later on when ships traveled to distant lands, they brought back exotic spices that were incorporated into healing methods.

They even used odd ingredients like mouse tails, frog legs and parts of exotic animals. Apparently bats also live in the castle. They migrate and stay for a while. As you enter or leave the castle, keep an eye out for the big metal ring on the clock tower door. It has a crack in it. There’s a legend about that too: the prince supposedly challenged people to bite through the ring. If someone could do it, he’d give them the castle. He probably never thought anyone could pull it off. But then a local witch showed up, perhaps she was an herbalist before pharmacists were a thing. She chewed something, cast some spell and managed to crack the ring, not fully bite through it, but still, impressive. Quite the tale.

From the back of the castle, you get the best view of the city. You can even clearly see the university. We went there too. Thanks to the university, Heidelberg has a lot of young people and students. Despite Germany’s rapidly aging population, the average age here is very low, about 40 years old out of a population of 160.000. That’s phenomenal for Germany. The presence of young people creates an atmosphere that’s almost like springtime birdsong, really joyful. Heidelberg University was founded in 1386, tied to the Catholic Church’s schism. Heidelberg needed its own theological training center. So the university was born. As you might remember, universities were originally theological institutions to train clergy and over time, other disciplines were added.

Heidelberg University is especially renowned for medicine, philosophy, law and other humanities. Both Hegel and Jaspers studied here and according to sources, 56 Nobel nominees have been connected to the university in some way. Architecturally, like many old universities, it has a historic main building. Actually, the building wasn’t constructed in 1386. It was built in 1711, but there are more modern buildings too. What’s interesting is that the campus is located right in the city center. That might be unusual, though I’ve seen it before in Coimbra, Portugal’s oldest university is also downtown.

One thing you’ll find nowhere else is the Student Prison Museum. Yes, there’s a museum in an old student prison. But to visit, you have to follow strict small-town rules. It closes at 4 p.m. and the last entry is at 3:15. We didn’t make it in time, so we’ll have to come back. If you want to go, you should show up at 7 a.m. and line up. Back then, universities had their own courts and could administer justice. Students who committed various offenses were sent to this prison. From what I’ve seen and read, it’s considered a rite of passage, if you haven’t spent time in the student prison, you haven’t experienced Heidelberg University.

As we wrapped up our walk, one question lingered: why is the city so visually uniform? The answer lies in the fact that it wasn’t bombed during WWII. The opposing forces wanted to set up headquarters here and once they occupied it, that’s exactly what they did. Rumor has it, the idea came from a high-ranking officer who had studied at Heidelberg University. All in all, I really liked the city. It’s charming, vibrant and beautiful. Walking here is a pleasure. Mark Twain had also been here and he was inspired by this city to write a book called "A Tramp Abroad". Heidelberg became a place Twain especially loved and details like the university, the Neckar River and Heidelberg Castle are described in the book with his characteristic humor. Twain describes Heidelberg as one of the most romantic places. This is the first time I’ve heard about this. I didn’t know Mark Twain's books other than Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, though of course I do know his famous quotes.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour and now have an idea of what can be seen in this charming city within just a few hours. My advice: come visit sometime. There is so much here worth seeing and exploring.