The Red-Stone Ruins of Heidelberg Castle

2022 European Adventure: Part 4 of 6

Any one who knows me knows this: I am obsessed with castles.

The German town of Heidelberg is home to imposing castle ruins rising above a red-roofed medieval town.

It’s the medieval kind of castle, with towers and bricks and spiral staircases and looming walls. Palaces are the lacy, frilly, gold-gilt ones. That’s not what I’m about. I love fortresses, castles, bastions–anything that can be defended and, preferably, sports an imposing skyline.

I can’t pinpoint a moment when my love affair with castles began, though I can guess at all the little pieces that influenced it:. Cair Paravel in Narnia. The Royal Palace in Alanna the Lioness. Gondor in The Lord of the Rings. And hundreds of others of books and movies from my childhood that shaped me into who I am.

Therefore, to me, becoming obsessed with castles isn’t something that happened to me. It’s something that I am.

Heidelberg Castle from the garden lookout

I had been wanting to visit Heidelberg Castle for a quite a while, since I studied abroad in Southern France. When my friends wanted to go to Germany as part of our European Adventure, I put Heidelberg on the itinerary.

We got up early in the morning on our first full day in Heidelberg in order to walk up the hill to be at the castle moment it opened. You can’t buy tickets ahead of time, which would have worried me had it been July, but in May (shoulder season), I was confident tickets would be available all day.

No, we got there early so I could nerd out over the beautiful castle for as long as possible.

Tickets were very affordable, and we paid for the optional tour, as well. They only offer them in English about 2 times a day, so plan accordingly (another perk of getting there early).

However, the castle ruins isn’t the only thing to see within the castle. We made some quick stops at the other attractions before spending hours exploring the castle grounds.

The Apothecary Museum

Tucked into the basement of one of the castle building, this museum is full of antique apothecary shops (the furniture is real, but not authentic to the castle). The Apothecary Museum is a very in-depth walk through the practice of medicine and remedies from the Greeks to modern medicine. There are a plethora of information panels to read about the evolution of the understanding of the human body as well as history about apothecaries. I was too impatient to read all of the panels, which is quite unlike me. But there was a castle outside!

But I did manage to retain some interesting knowledge.

A workroom where medicines and remedies were made

For example, exotic animals lent an apothecary shop legitimacy, which is why there’s an alligator in this one and a narwhale tusk (claimed to be a unicorn horn) in the corner.

A bit of more recent history that I found interesting is about the pharmacy symbol in Germany. In 1929, there was a competition to create a uniform symbol for apothecary shops (pharmacies) in Germany, so they could be easy to recognize. The design of a medicine bottle and three spoons won (a play on the saying: “three times daily a spoonful of medicine”).

However, when the National Socialists (Nazi party) came to power, they disliked the modern symbol and held a second competition. The winning design was a Gothic A with a white cross, but the Nazi’s replaced the cross with a German rune. This symbol is still used today. I find this fascinating because it shows the extent to which the Nazi’s both craved (and got) control over everything. Even things that really didn’t matter. But it was about control.

green triangle with a white bottle in the center and three spoons

Heidelberg Tun

The Heidelberg Tun is a giant wine barrel in the basement of the castle. It was used to store all of the tithes and taxes paid with wine. All kinds of wines were used to pay taxes (white, red, rose, and anything else that people made) and it was all dumped into this ginormous barrel. The wine was brought up to the banquet hall by a pump on the floor above.

I’m guessing the king didn’t drink this concoction though!

Now…The Castle!

We entered from the back (unknowingly) because we walked up a hill from the Aldstadt. But this gave me the opportunity to climb a super steep hill with the castle walls looming above me. We entered through an arched tunnel, the interior cool and slightly damp. Even then, the passageway continued to slope upward. The stones beneath my feet were rough and bumpy. As my friends pulled ahead, I couldn’t help lingering (already), dragging my fingertips on the stone.

We stepped out onto a battlement, wandered along the railing and walked into the towers. The whole of Heidelberg was laid out before us, red roofs and green trees. The streets of the Aldstadt exactly where they were hundreds of years ago. I just breathed it all in.

We wandered for two hours, taking in the castle from a hundred different angles. We walked down into the trench where once there had been a moat. We circled the exterior, examining the walls. We walked through the inner courtyard looking at the red stone towering above us. We found a natural spring and an old tree and the well that used to supply the castle. Each building with was a bit different, which is natural when a castle has been added to over the years.

The first castle on this spot was built before 1200. Later it was expanded into two castles (an upper and lower), but the upper one was destroyed and none of it survives. The lower castle is the one we see today (though it was much simpler eight hundred years ago).

The region around Heidelberg was called the Palatinate (the name of the region) and Heidelberg eventually became one of the seats of power of the Electoral Palatinate, in other words, the prince elector. The Holy Roman Emperor, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) was elected by 7 electors. One of them fairly consistently ruled from Heidelberg beginning in the mid 1300s.

In 1619, Protestants revolting against the Catholic Holy Roman Empire offered the kingship of Bohemia to Frederick V (deposing a Catholic ruler for a Protestant one, because the law at that time in Germany was that the region’s religion was whatever religion the ruler professed). Frederick accepted the kingship and triggered the Thirty Years War. The conflict drew in the Dutch and the Spanish and it quickly became a larger war. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia provided more autonomy for some German states (and won the Dutch their independence from Spain).

Frederick V, King of Bohemia, started the Thirty Years War

Here’s where the story gets really interesting!

A few decades later, the sister of the Elector Palatinate of Heidelberg (Elizabeth Charlotte, called Liselotte) married the Duke of Orleans (the younger brother of Louis XIV, king of France). When Liselotte’s brother Charles II (Elector Palatinate of Heidelberg) of the Whittlesbach line died in 1685 without an heir, Louis XIV claimed that the region belonged to France because of Liselotte’s marriage to his brother. When this proclamation was refused, the French marched on Heidelberg and destroyed the castle, blowing the front off the Fat Tower. You can still see this damage today, which is incredible. Talk about stories in the stones!

Coins celebrated king Louis XIV destroyed Heidelberg Castle — King Louis XIV minted coins to
celebrate the destruction of Heidelberg

Half destroyed Fat Tower at Heidelberg Castle — King Louis XIV minted coins to
celebrate the destruction of Heidelberg

The castle was partially rebuilt but then the Prince Palatinate decided to move the court to Mannheim. This is likely because the Baroque architectural and design style had come into fashion and it was easier to build a new castle with those specifications than remodel the old and partially destroyed castle.

Later, the castle was struck by a lightning bolt which further destroyed parts of it.

If you take a tour at Heidelberg Castle, they explain all this history to you and more. Additionally, taking a tour is the only way to go inside the castle. The information provided during the tour was excellent, however the inside of the castle leaves a lot to be desired. As it was destroyed, none of the original furnishings remain. The reconstructed areas mainly host concerts and weddings, but look like a regular wedding venue with white walls and a makeshift stage rather than like a medieval castle.

The rest of the reconstructed rooms were furnished in the 1800s based on what people thought it might have once looked like…but the furnishings and decorations show the 1800s idea of 16th and 17th century decor, which are not accurate to what the interior of the medieval castle would have looked like when inhabited.

I loved visiting the Heidelberg castle and learning about how this location and the people who would have resided here fit into the larger tales of history. The history of Heidelberg is well researched and very central to many events that happened in central Europe. This makes this castle an amazing tourist destination and a must-see castle.

However, I have visited better castles to explore (by which I mean, poke around for hours. See every room and every wall and go into every tower). That is because Heidelberg, as a ruin, has a lot more restricted areas than many of the other castles I have visited and loved.

It is a gorgeous town and beautiful castle, but in the grand scheme of castles, it would not make my list of favorites. (Being able to poke around for hours is a top qualified for the list).

It was still a very charming visit to the renowned and much anticipated Heidelberg Castle. The castle did not disappoint, only the access to the castle!