Our Tour of Heidelberg Germany

We exited the train and walked about 1 and a half miles to get to the area we wanted to go to. It is the old town area of Heidelberg, Germany . The walkways are cobblestone and are pedestrians only… well mostly except for an occasional cab or tourist bus.

The walk from the beginning to the end in which you pass many interesting shops and curiosities and brings you to the castle, which is another mile down the street.

The history of this town begins in the 5th century BC when a huge fortress of refuge was built by the Celts. They also built a place of worship. They were built on the Heiligenberg Hill or the Holy Mountain.

By 40 AD the Romans had built a fort and a signal and tower on the bank of the Neckar river along with stone bridges spanning the river. They were occupied by the 24th Roman cohort and the 2nd Cyrenaican cohort. They built shrines and temples atop the mountain for worshiping their idols. The Romans remained there until 260 AD when the camp was conquered by Germanic tribes

In 863 AD, the monastery built in the honor of Saint Michael was built on the Mountain of Saints inside the walls of the Celtic fortress. The bishop of Worms extended his influence in the valley by having the Schonau Abbey built in 1142.

The first reference of Heidelberg was in a document in that Abbey dated 1196, and this is considered to be the town’s founding date. In 1214 the Duke of Bavaria, Ludwig I acquired the Palatinate and this castle came under his control. In 1303 another castle was built for defense. In 1386, Heidelberg University was founded by Rupert I, Elector Palatine.

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 The first reference of Heidelberg was in a document in this Abbey dated 1196, and this is considered to be the town’s founding date.

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The first structure of the castle was built before 1214 and by 1294 it was expanded into two castles. In the late 17th century the castle was sieged repeatedly and it was destroyed by the French of the Grand Alliance.  

In 1537, the upper castle was destroyed being struck by lightning in a terrible storm. By 1650 the castle was expanded to structures now present.  

During this time the monastery on the Holy Mountain had suffered much over the years and crumbling in disrepair.  In 1503 the belltower fell killing the three final monks.  

The castle changed hands several times thru the 30 years war (1618-1648). This war was one the longest, most destructive and deadliest wars in European History resulting in 8 million casualties.

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In our day trip here, we visited 3 churches, the castle and a special bridge. Amazingly during WWII, this city was not destroyed like many of the others that I had the opportunity to visit on this trip.

During WWII the Nazi’s decided that the Holy Mountain would be a good place to build an amphitheater and started construction just beneath the location of the old monastery. Heidelberg had no major industry and the Army wanted to use the city as a garrison base it was basically saved except that when the Germans left during the US advancement it destroyed 2 bridges on their way out of town to slow down the advancement of troops in their wake. In the next couple of posts, we will look at the castle and the churches.

Heidelberg University – Student Prison

This building is the student prison. In the 16th century the people began to complain about some of the wild exploits of the students of the university. The University’s answer was the Studentenkarzer or the Student Prison. The offending student would be jailed here for a sentence of anywhere from a few days to three months. There was an internal door that opened that allowed the student to attend classes by day and return to confinement after his studies. Things that you could be jailed for are things like womanizing, disturbing the peace, public drunkeness, etc. The walls and the ceiling are covered in graffiti that spans the centuries. There is a chair, a table and a bed in the small cell. Although meant as a punishment some of the scholars felt a stay in the studentenkarzer a rite of passage. The school discontinued using the prison in 1914.

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Science In Heidelberg Germany

This is the statue of  Robert Bunsen.  Mr. Bunsen was a brillant chemist who studied at the University of Gottingen where his father worked as the chief librarian.  

•  In 1834 he discovered the antidote to arsenic poisoning
• In 1841 he developed the carbon zinc electric cell battery. 
• In 1855 he is also credited with aiding in the developing of the Bunsen Burner, which is used to this day in the science field.
• He developed the prototype for the first spectroscope that founded a new field of science spectroscopy

The building behind Mr. Bunson is the science building for the Heidelberg University.

In medieval times in the life of the university students in Germany, there was a disputation that allowed scholars to post their views on bulletin boards at the university in form of a thesis and that left open the thesis for debate. October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed to the church door in the castle of Whittenberg Germany his 95 Thesis leaving it open for debate and it sent shockwaves through the church.

In April 1518, Luther was received in Heidelberg to defend his 95 Theses at what is known as the Heidelberg Disputation. So April 26, 1518, was his first opportunity to meet with and explain it to his brother monks. Read what Luther said to his brothers in the Heidelberg Disputation. A year later Pope Leo X sent word that he wanted Luther to be branded a heretic and excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

 

The plaque is on the side of the house that Karl Gottfried Nadler was born in Heidelberg, Germany on 19 August 1809. Karl was a prominent lawyer and Palatine dialect poet. His works “Werke von Karl Gottfried Nadler” can be purchased.

He died August 26, 1849. 

In 1838 Mark Twain on his European travels spent 3 months here in Heidelberg. He wrote about his stay here in his book ‘A Tramp Abroad‘ in 1880.

There were so many beautiful places here in Heidelberg we could not fit them all in this post. Check out our video to see more of this beautiful village.

Have a Blessed day and until we meet again.

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