About 10 years ago we came to Heidelberg by coincidence. We were driving to The Netherlands after work and were both too tired, so we drove off the highway and looked for a hotel.
Luckily, Heidelberg is only a few minutes away from the highway, and we quickly found a room online, so it didn't take long for us to get to bed. Next morning we had our breakfast and had to leave immediately as we had another 500 km ahead of us. We parked our car not so far from the hotel, but we still had to walk a bit through the old town. The night before we didn't notice how charming Heidelberg was and we didn't see the impressive palace towering above the city!
We had no time to visit it, but we said that we will come back one day. And we did.. Last weekend, we finally (intentionally 🙂) drove to Heidelberg and spent all day in the palace complex.
We arrived in the evening and went for a walk in the old town. I must admit that we didn't enjoy it that much as it was packed with tourists and we were basically walking in a gigantic queue. We decided that we would go to the palace early in the morning in the hope that there wouldn't be too many people already.
We didn't stay too long in the old town as there was supposed to be a storm later on and we had to walk about 3 km back to our hotel, but we still enjoyed views of the palace and were looking forward to explore it. Of course we got caught in the storm on the way back to the hotel, but the rain was warm and refreshing, so we didn't mind 🙂
Next morning, we had quick breakfast and then we hurried to the tourist office to purchase the tickets as you cannot get them online. It turned out that we could only get tickets to the funicular and palace complex, but we had to buy the tickets for the guided tour at the palace. Well, at least we saved a lot of time as we avoided the queue at the funicular and walked right past all the people waiting to get their tickets.
In less than 10 minutes we were already in front of the palace. We were lucky as there was nobody waiting to purchase tickets for the guided tour, so it was all very fast.
We paid 9 EUR per person for the funicular and palace complex and another 9 EUR per person for the guided tour in English. You can save 3 EUR when you walk up the hill, but it is not worth it.
We had about 2 hours before our tour to explore the palace, so let's go!
Heidelberg palace is one of the most visited historical monuments in Germany with around 1 million visitors each year.
The first mention of the castle dates back to the beginning of the 13th century. However, it took more than 3 centuries to complete it. We can also see different styles used in various buildings. The palace was completed in the 17th century when it was the most beautiful and most luxurious palace in the entire empire, but it was also the century when the palace was attacked and destroyed for the first time.
The reconstruction began immediately, but disasters kept falling on Heidelberg and it was never completely rebuilt. Eventually, the palace was left in decay and became a symbol of romanticism. Until today, the ruins attract countless wedding ceremonies each year.
At the end of the 19th century it was decided to restore one of the former palaces called Friedrichsbau and this is also the palace which you can visit when you book a guided tour. I highly recommend you to do it as it was the best tour that we have ever had. Our guide told us many interesting facts and stories about the palace and he was so much fun! We could see that he loves his job.
The largest and most expensive construction happened at the beginning of the 17th century when young Prince-Elector Frederick V. married Princess Elisabeth Stuart, daughter of The King of England. Marriage
It started as an arranged relationship for political reasons, but as soon as they saw each other they fell in love. They were happy together which was unusual for royalty at that time.
After their week long wedding celebrations it didn't take long for Elisabeth to move to Heidelberg. Frederick loved his wife dearly and wanted to give her everything she deserved. And she deserved a lot, she was The Princess of England!
What did he do?
Well, she deserved her very own palace, right? But there was no place in the palace complex to build another one, so he built it outside of the walls and enlarged the complex. And she deserved servants as well, makes sense, no? How many? 400 should be enough as she was a modest girl.
She also brought a monkey with her. I forgot to ask our guide how come that she had a monkey though. Do you think that the monkey needed a palace? Of course it did! And there you go, they built a separate palace for a monkey.
She loved Frederick, but she was missing home. To make her feel better he built a large English garden complex just outside of the palace gate.
Frederick was constantly challenged by the status of his wife, and therefore gladly accepted his election as King of Bohemia. At that time this was the most prestigious role in the empire and Elisabeth couldn't be prouder. She finally became The Queen, the title that she long deserved.
Today, there is The German Apothecary Museum located in the The Ottheinrich Renaissance palace (on the right side of the courtyard).
The museum takes us through 2000 years of pharmacy history with various displays of medicine, herbs and spices.
It started before the World War II. in Munich and was moved to Heidelberg after the war.
The collections were donated by various private donors from the industry.
The display that we see here is called Officina. It used to be a pharmacy shop. Imagine that pharmacies nowadays would look like this.
Officinas were situated anywhere in central areas, such as close to churches or markets.
My favorite part of the museum was called The Medicament. This is where we could see display of mainly natural medicine consisting of tons of herbs and spices.
Each officina had a room for herbs and storage. This is where the herbs were dried and prepared for medicines.
It smelled like meadow 🙂
And now we are coming to the part that fascinated my husband...
The Laboratory! You walk down the stairs of a tower from the 15th century to enter the laboratory and I must tell you that it was an impressive entrance.
The room has a round shape, and there are plenty of equipment used for distillation. He was already looking at which one would be the best for our quinces from the garden 🙂
The museum is not big, but if you want to learn about the profession you can spend there hours and hours. Personally, I do not recommend to stay there so long as it's very hot and humid inside.
Once we left the museum we had 10 minutes before our tour. Instead of waiting we went to the terrace to check out the views.
There were way too many people there, so we couldn't get to the edge and had to wait for our turn, but it gave us an opportunity to see the palace from another side.
I couldn't wait to go inside!
But let's see the views first! There was a small tower which we needed to enter for the best views. There was a family standing in the tower for a long time pointing to various monuments when a woman behind me said: Gentlemen, maybe you could make space for this lady. She is trying to take photos and I'm sure she doesn't want you in them 🙂 She saved me as I didn't have much time left...
We walked back to our meeting point in front of The Ottheinrich Renaissance palace. This is one of the first and most important renaissance construction in Germany, and I didn't mind waiting for a minute while admiring the intricate detail of the façade.
A minute later our tour started and we entered the ruins that you cannot see from the courtyard.
Our guide explained that this was the most impressive palace in the empire and he would try to describe it as good as he can, so that we can imagine the grandeur instead of ruins, so bad luck for people with poor imagination. I already knew that he will be fun 🙂
There was so much to say and he talked so fast that some people asked him to slow down but he refused because there was too much to say in such a short time. I have a feeling that the family got offended 🙂
The only worry of the owners of the palace was the protection. They were constantly worrying that someone would attack and destroy the palace, so it was built like a bunker. The walls are 4-7 meters thick and there were cannons placed everywhere just in case.
Louis V. didn't trust his servants and kept the gunpowder in his palace instead of outer walls. This was not the best place as one night the palace was hit by the lightning and the gun powder exploded and the palace burnt down.
The ruins of the Princess' Palace are used for concerts and various performances today.
From here we went through the small opening into the basement of the palace. I didn't manage to take photos as it was completely dark. One man was leaning against the wall and when our guide saw it he said: Watch out, the walls are only 4 meters thick! 🙂
Once we walked through the ruins we returned back to the courtyard in front of The Ottheinrich Renaissance palace. We learned that the façade of the palace symbolized the wealth, power and characteristics of a good leader.
There are sculptures from Greek mythology, such as Joshua, Hercules and Samson as well as sculptures of former owners of Heidelberg.
Let's go inside of Friedrichsbau!
First we entered The King's Hall which was a disappointing sight at first until we learned about how it was renovated. It was rebuilt by Nazis who made it one of their favorite spots for meetings. This room hosted the highest ranked Nazis on several occasions which gave me shivers. But as our guide said: Today, they are successfully keeping the Nazis out and this room is used for weddings instead. There was some seminar that week, so the room was full of chairs.
The palace was built at the beginning of the 16th century and burnt down in the 18th century. It was a beautiful residential palace that was rebuilt as a small museum. Unfortunately, it was rebuilt with having visitors instead of authenticity in mind. There are some stunning details in the museum, but it doesn't show how it looked like before it was destroyed.
From the hall we were able to enter all available rooms.
The doors as well as floors are typical example of late 19th and early 20th century.
The interior is decorated with portraits of former owners. Here we can see Frederick V. Most portraits are of him and his family as they expanded the palace grounds the most.
This is supposed to be some children toy, but I really have no idea how it works. I find it surprising that some children would like to play with something like this - different times, different habits.
Frederick V. and Elizabeth had 13 children! Here we can see 6 of them and I'm sure you would not be able to guess which one was the youngest. It's the oldest lady on the right. She was their youngest child who lived the longest therefore she is portrayed as an older lady.
We will walk through the door, then down the staircase on the left to the church...
At first, I didn't understand this construction. We walked down to the basement to get to the church, and when we arrived there was this large open space. How is it possible? The palace is built on top of the church! And this means that this church has actually never been destroyed as the only building in the complex.
From the church we walked directly to the cellars..
We were told that there is a huge barrels that we must see before we left. When we entered the cellars we immediately saw this barrel. And it was huge, so we thought that it was this one.
I took photos and was planning to leave, but first went to look for the toilets...
When I turned around the corner I saw this! Look at how big it is...
There is a staircase leading to the top of the barrel. It is so impressive! It is 220,000 liter and it took 130 trunks of oak to build it.
I don't drink alcohol, but my husband had to order a glass of local wine after he saw this barrel 🙂
It's a long tour, but we still have the gardens ahead of us. And let me tell you that they are large. There were so many people, but it didn't feel crowded because there was enough space for everyone. Today, the gardens consists of grass and trees so it is not that interesting, but the views of the castle were stunning. I'm sure that Elizabeth loved them too.
We were so far away from the palace, but it was still part of the palace gardens. Impressive!
And finally it was time to go back to the old town. As it was down the hill we decided to walk this time. The hill was steep and we were happy that we took the funicular in the morning as we saw some people walking up and they were not so happy with their decision.
We had such a great day in Heidelberg. There are many sights in the town that we haven't see yet, so there is a chance that we will be coming back again.
Note: The details that I shared were obtained during our guided tour.
I hope that you have enjoyed our tour.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina
