The ancient German city of Heidelberg rested comfortably on the banks of the river Neckar, evenly at the junction of the lands of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Rheiland-Palatinate - in one of the most densely populated regions of Germany. The city is picturesque, cozy, interesting in all respects, very beautiful and rich in sights.

How to get here

Across the western part of the city is the federal highway A5, another highway, the A656, connects Heidelberg with Mannheim. The S-Bahn RheinNeckar commuter network makes it easy and quick to get from Heidelberg to all the cities in the region.

In addition, the long-distance trains Zurich-Frankfurt, Stuttgart-Cologne, Stuttgart-Hamburg, Stuttgart-Dortmund, Salzburg-Frankfurt, Karlsruhe-Stralsund pass through Heidelberg. If you look at the map, it becomes obvious that the city is connected by rail to all regions of Germany.

Transport

The basis of urban transport in Heidelberg - buses and trams. Well-groomed, modern cars are never crowded, but because of the landscape, they can not deliver passengers to all corners of the city. To get to the hill, you can use the mountain railway, in fact - the funicular system, or a bicycle, which is a full participant in the road.

Entertainment, excursions and attractions of Heidelberg

The ruins of the old castle rise above the river and attract the fans of history, in its undisturbed premises is a museum with a very diverse exhibition. But no less interesting is the Old Town with the longest pedestrian street in Germany (more than one and a half kilometers).

The main architectural style of the Old City is the Baroque, its semantic center is the spacious square of Karla .An amazingly solid and pleasant view of the architectural ensemble of the square is created by the Palace of the Grand Duke, built in 1714 specifically to accommodate high-ranking guests, the Bouasseira Palace, which in the early 19th century was opened one of the first private art galleries in Germany, Twin Towers over the bridge, city ​​symbol .The very same bridge is called Karlov, in honor of one of the electors who ordered to build a reliable stone bridge in the city .

The City Hall, the Jesuit Church, the Old University were built in the city after the end of the terrible wars that swept through Germany in the 17th century. There are buildings and earlier buildings in the city, it is the church of St. Peter (first mentioned in the annals in 1357), the Church of the Holy Spirit, the first mention of it in the documents dates back to the 12th century.

20 museums and 11 theaters function in the city, giving city dwellers and city visitors the opportunity to join the various layers of cultural life .Heidelberg was very lucky during the Second World War: the Americans practically did not bomb this city, as they planned to place their headquarters here .For these reasons, the old city buildings are well preserved, which is very rare in Germany .In 2004, an application was submitted for the inclusion of the historic center of Heidelberg in the UNESCO World Heritage List, but it was rejected by .

University of Heidelberg

The city is proud of the Heidelberg University, the oldest in modern Germany .It was founded in 1386, therefore the townspeople have long been accustomed to noisy student holidays and parties .And because the holidays sometimes became too noisy, in this case, the townspeople once built a "student prison" .It is unlikely that she made the holidays more quiet, but was active until the 30s of the last century .Now it houses a small museum .For several centuries the University was a major scientific and research center not only in Germany, but all over the world .Nowadays, the fact that the University with its clinical center gives the city about 15,000 jobs, that with a little more than 140,000 people, is very weighty .By the way, 35,000 of city residents are students .Here is such an arithmetic .

Photo of Heidelberg (34)