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.