Heidelberg Castle (Schloss Heidelberg)
Each year, Heidelberg Palace attracts around a million visitors from
all over the world. Since the early 19th century, these impressive ruins
have been synonymous with Romanticism.
Our ship docked in Mannheim, Germany to allow passengers to disembark for excursions.
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City Tour + Castle Ruins
Our morning excursion took us to Heidelberg, home to the oldest
university in Germany, which was founded in 1386. Here we visited the imposing
ruins of
HEIDELBERG CASTLE, towering magnificently over the city and
among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.
Elisabeth's Gate
The triumphal arch known as
Elisabeth's Gate, is located near the entrance. Tradition says the gate
was built in a single night by Prince Elector Friedrich V in 1615 as a
birthday present for his English princess, Elisabeth Stuart.
The charming little gate was severely weather warn and was
partly restored in 1949. The unique pillars are noteworthy with their
leaf work and artistic flowered capitols.
Ottheinrich Building
The Ottheinrich Building in Heidelberg Palace counts
as one of the most beautiful and earliest
palace buildings of the German
Renaissance.
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| David, Hercules and Samson on the show façade of the Ottheinrich Building. |
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| Ottheinrich Building |
Figures on the Friedrich Building
The ancestors of the palatine prince electors look down from the façade of Friedrichsbau.
The façade of the Friedrich Building commands
attention from the moment you enter the palace courtyard. It is richly
decorated with figures. Commissioner of buildings Friedrich IV displays
the perfect gallery of portraits from the royal line here and
demonstrates his claim to power for all his contemporaries.
Sculptor Sebastian Götz from Chur and master builder
Johannes Schoch created the fantastic series of figures on the Friedrich
Building in three to four years at the beginning of the 17th century.
More information about figures...
The Fassbau (Barrel Building)
After visiting the wine barrel, we next spent some time on the Great Terrace. We didn't have time to visit the interiors of any buildings or the gardens, so that will have to remain for a future visit.
Just as breath-taking as the castle is from the city, so too is the city
from the castle. From either the Great Terrace or the gardens, one has
an amazing view of Heidelberg, the Neckar River, and the Neckar valley
far into the Rhine plain. On a clear day, Mannheim is even visible on
the horizon.
The view from there was spectacular, so we'll cover that in a separate post.
Additional photos can be found on our Rhine & Moselle Shutterfly page:
Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.
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The most prominent building in the image above is the Church of the Holy Spirit which served two congregations (Protestant and Catholic) for a time and was the reason why the court removed to Mannheim.
