Beloved by Poets of the Romantic Age, Old Heidelberg

The romantic city of Heidelberg rests on the banks of the Neckar River and is dominated by the ruins of the castle which was, for 5 centuries, the glittering residence of the Palatine Prince Electors.

It is one of the most beautiful and the oldest of cities in Germany. Building of the castle began in the early 1200s and it became one of the masterpieces of Renaissance architecture until destroyed for the first time in the devastating Thirty Years War which began with the death of the Winter King, Friedrich V, a Reformist and the Crown going to the Catholic Maximilian of Bavaria in 1618. In 1649 Friedrich’s son, Karl-Ludwig returned to the royal residence and subsequently rebuilt the castle. His daughter (Liselotte) was given in marriage to the Duke of Orleans – brother of Louis XIV, the Sun King – in a move devised to guarantee peace with France. When Liselotte’s brother died Louis XIV tried to claim her inheritance which led to the War of Succession of Orleans and the castle was completely destroyed in 1693. The ruins are one of the most beautiful in all of Europe.

It is notable that Heidelberg escaped bombing in World War 2.