Heidel­berg Sights

St. Peter´s Church Heidel­berg

St. Peter´s Church Heidel­berg

The ChurchThe St. Peter's Church is the oldest church of Heidel­berg and the former ver­sion of this buil­ding was first docu­men­ted in 1196. It was a Roma­nes­que church in the middle of a small vill­lage. The city of Heidel­berg was foun­ded in the begin­ning of the 13th...

Heidel­berg Sights

Who does not know it from Berlin, Ham­burg, Stutt­gart etc. In order to visit the most important sights, you often have to travel from one attrac­tion to the other for several minu­tes by bus or train. This can be quite annoy­ing on some days, espe­ci­ally during rush hour.

In Heidel­berg it is com­ple­tely dif­fe­rent. Of course, Heidel­berg is also much smal­ler than the cities men­tio­ned above, but it is still not to be taken for gran­ted that (almost) ever­ything can be easily reached by foot. The most popu­lar sights of the city are all loca­ted in one area, the Old Town of Heidel­berg. Whe­ther you want to go to Heidel­berg Castle, the Old Bridge, the Church of the Holy Spirit and many other buil­dings worth seeing, basi­cally ever­ything is within wal­king distance. And if the ascent to the castle is too exhaus­ting, there is still the moun­tain rail­way at the Korn­markt which is also worth seeing. Thus, the sights of Heidel­berg make the sight­see­ing really easy.

Heidelberg Castle
Kornmarkt
Church of the Holy Spirit
Old Bridge
mountain railway
But, of course, there are also some places that one pre­fers to visit by public trans­port or by car. Theo­re­ti­cally, they are acces­si­ble on foot, but you should plan a little more time for that. For example the Königs­stuhl, respec­tively the viewing area on the moun­tain, on whose ter­race the Heidel­berg castle is loca­ted. The Phi­lo­so­phers’ Path and the Thing­stätte are loca­ted on the Neu­en­heim side of the Neckar and are also a little fur­ther away from the popu­lar Old Town, but are defi­ni­tely worth a visit.

A bit fur­ther away from the Old Town, in Schwet­zin­gen, you will also find the Schwet­zin­gen Castle with a beau­ti­ful and large castle garden. Espe­ci­ally the blossom­ing orna­men­tal cherry trees, which are nume­rous in the castle garden, are worth a trip in spring.

But if you prefer to stay only in Heidel­berg, you will also not get bored. Because one could say that the Old Town of Heidel­berg is itself one of the sights of Heidel­berg. Due to the old houses and monu­ments that are loca­ted along­side the Haupt­straße (main street), the pede­strian zone is truly pic­tures­que. A little tip: one should never forget the bran­ching alley­ways while strol­ling through the Old Town. As often, the small alley­ways aside from the busy main street are almost idyl­lic.

Church of the Holy Spirit Hauptstraße
start of the pedestrian zone
Hauptstraße Heidelberg
The reason why there are still so many and espe­ci­ally well pre­ser­ved monu­ments, houses and other buil­dings in Heidel­berg is that the city was not des­troyed in the Second World War. And that as one of a few German cities. As a result, many buil­dings from the 17th or 18th cen­tury are still pre­ser­ved. Many of Heidelberg’s sights were, howe­ver, men­tio­ned much ear­lier in char­ters and other docu­ments, such as poems. For example the Heidel­berg Castle. Altog­e­ther, there are about 3000 buil­dings in Heidel­berg that are listed as his­to­ri­cal monu­ments. This means that no matter where you look, there is actually some­thing to see on every corner.

Not to be for­got­ten are the muse­ums and of course the Heidel­berg Thea­tre and the Heidel­berg Zoo. For example, you will find the cen­tral German Phar­macy Museum in the Heidel­berg Castle and the Kur­pfäl­zi­sche Museum, as well as the Museum Stu­den­ten­kar­zer in the streets of the Old Town. The Heidel­berg Thea­tre, (or Heidel­berg Thea­tre and Orches­tra) has several venues in the Old Town and beyond. In addi­tion to drama, the thea­tre also offers con­certs, music thea­tre, thea­tre for child­ren and young people and its own dance sec­tion.

Con­clu­sion

So if you are in Heidel­berg for a visit, you will defi­ni­tely not get bored. If you visit Heidel­berg for the first time, the most famous sights should defi­ni­tely be visi­ted, and a visit to the thea­tre can also be a recom­men­da­tion for visi­tors who are inte­rested in thea­tre.