We reached Heidelberg in the mid-afternoon. It is a charming city located in the region where the Odenwald mountain range opens up towards the plains of the Rhine Valley. The cityscape is made up of many attractive baroque-style red-roofed structures which line the banks around the winding Neckar River.
Much of central Heidelberg is dominated by its imposing castle ruins known locally as the Schloss, nestled 300 feet above the city. It is a combination of several buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, with each building highlighting a different period of German architecture.
We didn’t get the chance to go up there to explore the interior of the castle and the surrounding gardens. Going by car was not recommended due to limited parking spaces. Walking would eat up too much time, considering we only had a short stop there. Taking the funicular would require a twenty-minute walk or a ten-minute bus ride to the funicular entrance.
We decided to just explore the Altstadt or Old Town, the oldest part of the city (of course) that sits just below the Schloss. It extends along the river for a mile, with Karl's Gate on one end, and Bismarckplatz on the other. The narrow streets are lined with restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and all kinds of shops.
The heart of the Altstadt is the Marktplatz or Market Square. It is where all the action happens, from open air farmers’ markets to public proceedings. In the olden days, this was the place where suspected witches and heretics were burnt at the stake. We found a nice table by the fountain so we sat, ordered some coffee (decaf for pregnant me), and soaked in the busy market atmosphere.
After the caffeine fix (at least for my husband), we visited The Church of the Holy Spirit, which stands on one end of the Marktplatz. We learned that it was one of the few buildings in Heidelberg that survived many wars and that throughout the centuries, this holy place had been shared by Catholics and Protestants.
This meant that the church had been home to both religious denominations. In 1706, in fact, a divider separating the two religious groups was put in place so that both congregations could hold their respective services simultaneously without disturbing the other, and it remained like this until the early 1930s. What an interesting arrangement - a single church with a Catholic side and a Protestant side! But in 1936, the separating wall was removed and the church is now exclusively Protestant.
At the other end of the plaza is the Rathaus or Town Hall, where the tourist office is, and around the area are other points of interests such as the Corn Market, where local produce is sold; the Madonna at the Corn Market, a statue of the Virgin Mary erected by the Jesuits to lure the people of Heidelberg back to Catholicism from Protestantism; the Heuscheuer which used to be a granary but is now the venue of university lectures; and the Zum Ritter St. Georg, an upscale hotel and restaurant in an old building that is one of the finest examples of late German Renaissance period.
We strolled along parts of the Main Street, which stretches over 1.6 kilometers from Bismarckplatz to the city hall. It is said to be the longest pedestrian zone of Europe. Window shopping here was quite interesting because aside from the attractive window displays, one gets to admire the many Baroque and Renaissance building facades.
We walked across the beautiful Old Bridge with a pair of imposing towers on each end. These towers served as accommodation for the bridge keeper in those days, and doubled as a dungeon for prisoners. The Eastern Tower has a spiral staircase that leads up to the small apartment over the middle archway above the gate, while the Western Tower, called The Guild Tower, has three medieval dungeon rooms. Tolls were enforced at the gate for any foreigners crossing the bridge until 1878.
On the north and south side of the bridge stand numerous statues of baroque barons, river gods, and even some mice and an ape. From what I had seen, I must say the people of Heidelberg certainly had a penchant for strange combinations.
The ape statue is called the Bruckenaff or “Bridge Ape.” I was told that this is the most popular and the most photographed (even more than the statues of Minerva, The Roman Goddess of Wisdom; or of Saint John Nepomuk, a great martyr; or even of Elektor Karl Theodor, the ruler who commissioned the reconstruction of the bridge after it was destroyed by the floods).
In the early days, an ape statue was sculpted to commemorate the playful monkey that was said to have grabbed the butt of the Bishop of Mainz while he was crossing the bridge, in order to point him to the right direction. In those days, the Neckar River served as the border between the Electorate of Mainz at its north and the Electorate Palatinate of the Rhine at its south, which were rival territories. The bridge connected the two, but of course, was heavily fortified on both sides. The wise monkey was indirectly telling the bishop that he did not have jurisdiction over the other side of the river. The ape statue also held a mirror to remind citizens from both palatinates to have their own self-reflection as they cross the bridge and to remind themselves that they were not better off than the people from the rival territory on the other side of the river. For some reason, the original statue disappeared, but in the 1970s, a modern bronze version was installed at the bridge to keep the legend alive.
Tourists could pose for photos with their heads behind the monkey's face (which is hollow - an optical trick that you won't notice if you are not privy of this secret). This would create the illusion that you are wearing a monkey's mask. This modern monkey also holds a mirror, just like its predecessor, but its other hand was sculpted not as a butt-grabbing hand, but to form the "horned hand" posture to ward off evil. It is said that rubbing the monkey's hands and mirror brings good luck, wealth, and a guaranteed return to Heidelberg. Unfortunately, we only learned about this legend when were back on the bus, so we did not get any interesting pictures with this monkey. Like the other tourists on the bridge that day, we did not even realize the bronze statue is hollow. Had we seen someone doing the iconic shot, we would have done the same.
The pair of bronze mice, not far from the ape statue, are said to bring fertility luck if you rub them. I was already pregnant that time, so we were good. Hahaha!
Near the riverbank, we found the Liebesstein or Love Stone, Heidelberg's own salute to love. Unlike some bridges in other European cities, where tourists are permitted to leave padlocks as a symbols of their undying love for each other, Heidelberg deem this practice to be an eyesore. As a solution, they installed this stone. There are a few metal rings to attach padlocks and at the center is a round hole where lovers can pose for romantic pictures.
For some reason, I lost my husband after I crossed the bridge. I was with a female tour mate, who had also lost her husband. We figured the two guys were together and were probably distracted by something they saw on the bridge while the two of us were busy chatting and taking pictures. We decided not to wait for them for some romantic shots...plus, we did not have padlocks with us anyway!
Not too far away was the Church of the Jesuits. The Jesuits came to Heidelberg in the 1700s to help bring back Catholicism after the Protestant Reformation. They were very active at the universities and were deeply-involved in the education mission. I don’t doubt this, for I went to a Jesuit university and I have a very high regard for Jesuit education and spirituality.
Sadly, the Jesuit Order was abolished in Germany in 1773 and this church was used for secular purposes, including a storage and a hospital. In the present time, the church is home to the Museum of Ecclesiastical Arts.
And speaking of education, Heidelberg is known for the prestigious Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, the most historic university in Germany dating back to the late 14th century. Heidelberg is also considered an academic city, in the likes of Cambridge and Oxford, and over the years, has attracted numerous brilliant intellectuals and artists from all over the world. Thus, it has also been referred to as Germany’s unofficial intellectual capital.
This reputation was epitomized in "The Student Prince," an operetta that was later on adapted to a film with the same title. It tells the story of a young German prince whose private tutor requested the king, his father, to allow the isolated royal to attend university, so he could mingle with other students his age. The king agreed and the prince was off to an academic adventure by way of dormitory life, fraternity life, and even a love life (he fell in love with a Heidelberg girl). The University of Heidelberg has since used this for their trademark and publicity.
On the bus enroute to our hotel, my husband said that this is one of the European universities where he hopes we could send our child to study one day. I told him it was totally fine, as long as I could come along (hahaha!). And it would be great if our child could get a scholarship grant as well. I rubbed my tummy and jokingly whispered to my baby, “Please be smart like daddy…and of course, mommy, too.”
Update: As of this writing, our now-grade school son continues to go to German language school on Saturdays, is already quite proficient in German, and is growing up to be the smart boy we had hoped him to be. Maybe one day, we can go back to Heidelberg!
Photo Credits:
britannica.com, thousandwonders.net, Vera Cornelius VIP Tours, arrivalguides.com, gpsmycity.com, Louisana (Wikimedia), Pumuckel42 (Wikipedia), 100cobbledroads.com
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