Heidelberg

Last Friday, I left for Mannheim where I held a cultural seminar on the weekend. The weather was nice and sunny and the landscape around the motorway had turned into Indian summer with colors ranging from green over yellow to red.

On the way I visited the old town of Heidelberg. The city is crowned by the remains of the ancient castles lying in ruins already for centuries.

Single walls remained of former multi-stored palaces, but those facades are impressive because of their size and the beautiful statues. On the facade of the Otto Heinrich Palace are the statues of mystical heroes (David, Herakles, Samson, Josua), Roman Emperors, the five virtues (strength, faith, love, hope, justice) and personifications of the seven classical planets (Saturn, Mars, Venus, Merkur, Jupiter, Sol and Luna).

On the facade of the the Friedrich Palace, an ancestor gallery is displayed including Rupertus I. - who founded the University of Heidelberg in 1386 (the oldest in Germany).

The view of Heidelberg from the garden is splendid and the sky was showing off a nice blue.

The last must-see of the castle is the big barrel: the first one was installed in the 16th century, but it was later used as firewood in the Thirty Years' War. Another two were installed and taken apart before the fourth and final was built in 1751. It has a capacity of more than 200,000 liters, but was only filled thrice as it leaked.