The Heidelberg Castle (in German language named: Heidelberger Schloss) is a famous ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.
The castle has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the 17th & 18th centuries. It is located 80 m (262 ft) up the northern part of the Königstuhl hillside, and thereby dominates the view of the old downtown. It is served by an intermediate station on the Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway that runs from Heidelberg's Kornmarkt to the summit of the Königstuhl.
The earliest castle structure was built before AD 1214 and later expanded into 2 castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning-bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning-bolt destroyed some rebuilt sections.
United barrel (Großes Fass), is a very large barrel of wine found in the cellar of the castle of Heidelberg in Germany. Its capacity is liters and 221 726 was built in 1751 years.
Its apparently been used to construct 130 oak trees. Ma 7 meters wide and 8.5 m in length. On the barrel is mounted the platform, which formerly served as a floor for dancing. In the recorded history of the castle on the 4th of huge barrels (Fass). United barrel is the last of them.
The closest international airports are Frankfurt am Main in the north (about 1 hour away) and Stuttgart in the southeast (about 1 1 / 2 hours away). The Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, which is also served by Ryanair, is a direct bus route with Heidelberg HBF connected (about 2 1 / 4 hours drive).
The old town, in German Altstadt, located at the southern side of the Neckar, is long and narrow and is dominated by the ruins of the Heidelberg Castle which perches 80 metres above the Neckar on the steep, wooded side of the Königstuhl ("King's chair" or throne) hill. The Karls´gate (Karlstor) is a triumphal arch in honour of the Prince Elector Karl Theodor, located at Heidelberg's very east. It was erected from 1775 until 1781 and designed by Nicolas de Pigage The house "Zum Ritter Sankt Georg" (Knight St. George) is one of the few buildings to survive the war of succession. Standing across from the Church of the Holy Spirit, it was built in the style of the late Renaissance. It is named after the sculpture at the top.
The "Marstall" was an arsenal of the Heidelberg Castle in which several different goods were stored. The 19th century building we see today was created in a neo-classical style. Since 1971, the "Marstall" has housed lecture halls of the university.
The old bridge is a stone bridge which was erected from 1786 to 1788. There is a medieval bridge gate on the side of the old town, originally part of its town wall. Baroque tower helmets were added as part of the erection of the stone bridge in 1788.
During the Nazi regime (1933-1945), Heidelberg was a stronghold of the NSDAP, which was the strongest party in the elections before 1933. Non-Aryan university staff were discriminated against, and by 1939 the University had "lost" one third of its staff due to racial and political reasons. During the "Night of Broken Glass" (Kristallnacht) on November 9, 1938, people of Heidelberg burned down synagogues at two locations in the city. The next day systematic deportation of Jews started, and 150 Jews were sent to the Dachau concentration camp. On October 22, 1940 during the "Wagner Buerckel event", 6000 local Jews, including 280 from Heidelberg, were deported to a concentration camp in France, Camp Gurs. Between 1934 to 1935, the Nazi regime built a huge amphitheatre on the Heiligenberg north of the old part of Heidelberg for the SS events. The theatre is called Thingstätte and is still used for occasional concerts and events.
On March 30, 1945, US forces liberated Heidelberg from the Nazi regime. German troops left the day before, after destroying the old bridge, Heidelberg's treasured river crossing and at that time the only crossing of the river Neckar for larger vehicles.
It has been theorized that Heidelberg escaped bombing in the Second World War because the US Army wanted to use the city as a garrison after the war. In fact, as Heidelberg was neither an industrial centre nor a transport hub, there was nothing worth bombing in Heidelberg and Allied air raids focused on the nearby industrial cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. In 1945, the University re-opened at the initiative of surgeon Karl Heinrich Bauer and philosopher Karl Jaspers.
Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2006, over 140,000 people live within the city's 109 km² (42 miles²) area. The town of Heidelberg is an administrative district of its own. Although not being part of it, the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, the rural district, which surrounds the town, has its seat in Heidelberg.
Heidelberg lies on the river Neckar at the point where it leaves its narrow, steep valley in the Odenwald to flow into the Rhine valley where, 20 km (12.4 miles) Northwest of Heidelberg, it joins the river Rhine at Mannheim. Heidelberg is part of a densely populated region known as the Rhein-Neckar-Triangle.
