Heidelberg

Heidelberg: history & character

Heidelberg, founded around 1196 and seat of the oldest electoral palace of the Holy Roman Empire, is Germany's most romantic university city. Its Ruprecht-Karls University (1386) is the country's oldest; its Renaissance castle, partly destroyed by Louis XIV's troops in 1689, dominates the Altstadt from the Königstuhl. In the 19th century, Heidelberg became the cradle of German Romanticism: Goethe, Hölderlin, Brentano all stayed here, and the Philosophenweg on the opposite Neckar bank remains one of Europe's most famous panoramic paths. For travellers with a dog, Heidelberg is one of Germany's most accessible cities: a 2 km pedestrian Altstadt, dog-tolerant Weinstube culture, the Königstuhl forest with 70 km of off-leash trails reachable directly from the centre by funicular, and the Neckarwiese for dog swimming and off-leash running 10 min on foot. Direct ICE trains to Frankfurt 50 min, Stuttgart 40 min, Strasbourg 1h10.