Tips for Visiting the Heidelberg Castle Ruins

As a friend pointed out, it wouldn’t be a European family vacation for us without visiting a castle. Luckily, Germany had countless royal homes for us to explore during our visit. Located 300 ft. on the hill overlooking its namesake city and the Neckar valley, Heidelberg Schloss (castle) was a special place and a memorable visit. A bonus for the grown-ups was the world’s largest wine barrel.

Heidelberg Castle History

Construction of the castle started around 1300. Many of Germany’s Prince Electors used the castle as a royal residence for many years. Its buildings, with splendid facades, were considered wonderful illustrations of great Renaissance architecture.

Unfortunately, the palace was a casualty of war in the late 17th century. It suffered attacks and destruction. Although some repairs were made, the reconstruction wasn’t completed.

Bad luck struck again when it was struck by lightning twice in 1764, resulting in fires. The palace was ultimately left in ruins and considered uninhabitable.

Count Charles de Graimberg started the huge undertaking of trying to preserve the castle ruins in 1800. Unfortunately, Heidelberg citizens used some of the castle’s stones to build their new homes when the castle was in ruins.

Preservation of Heidelberg Castle

The governing body finally decided to preserve the complex instead of rebuilding it. They only restored one building.

Today, people know Heidelberg Castle as one of the world’s most famous palace ruins. It has inspired many artists and poets for centuries.

Although it’s possible to drive as close to the castle as possible and park nearby, the street was closed by the time we got there. We saw some people walking up. But, we decided to save our legs and energy.

The best option to reach the castle, especially when traveling with kids, was through the funicular. It was a short walk from the funicular station to the castle complex.

We were lucky enough to be here on a beautiful, sunny day. It made for a very pleasant stroll through the castle grounds. This was our first glimpse of the castle.

The Castle Ruins

We entered a stone bridge and the ornate Gate Tower. It opened into an inner courtyard with several buildings. The red sandstone of the main building was the focal point and immediately caught our attention.

The Friedrich Building was impressive and unique. They reconstructed this building, which wasn’t heavily damaged. Figures of Wittelsbach on the Rhine representatives and the Wittelsbach dynasty rulers made up the facade.

You can visit this building’s interior and re-creation of some furnished rooms as part of a guided tour. I now regret not doing the guided tour that allowed us to see a sampling of the interior. Tours were available in German and English.

Near the Friedrich is the Ottheinrich Building, statues of Biblical figures and famous Romans made up the facade of this 16th-century building. This area was once colonized by the Romans.

Looking around, you can almost imagine this castle at its prime and how magnificent it must have been. It was quite sad to see it in ruins now. There was a sense of melancholy looking at this courtyard and seeing parts of prominent buildings that look like this now.

The View

One of our favorite parts about visiting the castle is the fantastic panoramic view of Heidelberg city and the Neckar River from the Great Terrace. The wonderful thing about visiting the castle first was that we got to see which sights and area we wanted to explore more in the old town below.

We didn’t know too much about this area. I wish we had a bit more time to cruise on the Neckar River. Those verdant valleys looked so beautiful from the castle.

Heidelberg Tun

One thing we’ll always remember about visiting Heidelberg Castle is seeing the “World’s Largest Wine Barrel” or Heidelberg Tun. This giant wooden barrel, as you can see from the photo below, towers over the visitors.

It was 23 feet (7 m) high and 27 feet (8.5 m) wide. It can hold 58,000 gallons or 220,000 liters. They supposedly used 30 oak trees to build this.

Prince Elector Karl Theodor built this massive vat in 1725 for all the wine the Palatine wine growers and producers paid as taxes. During that time, people paid public taxes using goods, and since this was a wine-making region, the rulers received a lot of wine.

A staircase led to the top of the barrel that served as a dance floor. With all that wine, there was much cause for dancing and celebrating. Although, this wine barrel has actually been empty for most of its existence.

The giant barrel was located in the cellar area of the castle. There’s also a smaller barrel about a third of the size of the giant one.

Visitors pass a small cafe and wine tasting area on the way to the barrel. My husband and kids highly recommend the pretzels and bratwursts in the cafe.

Apothecary Museum

Another interesting area within the castle was the German Apothecary Museum or Deutsches Apotheken-Museum. Ever wondered how people from the 17th to the 19th centuries cured themselves? This museum covered it all.

Its vast collection included over 20,000 objects that covered over 2,000 years of the history of western pharmacy. The self-guided tour, exhibits and several recreated rooms detailed how remedies evolved from pre-historic times using herbs to modern laboratories.

The museum displayed a lot of information in English and German. My kids found it a bit overwhelming though interesting.

Heidelberg Old Town Area

Don’t miss a walk around the charming old town area of Heidelberg. While the castle is the most visited and well-known attraction here, the city is also actually known for Germany’s oldest university. They founded Heidelberg University in 1386, and it has about 30,000 students.

The old town area was a pleasant place for a stroll. Like many of Europe’s historic towns, colorful buildings lined the cobblestoned streets.

The city also escaped damages during World War II, leaving much of the beautiful and historic buildings intact. There were many shops, cafes and restaurants here.

We loved our short walk to the riverside area and to the Old Town bridge (Alte Brucke). My kids enjoyed watching all the activity on the river including this party boat on a Sunday afternoon.

The bridge also had the best view of Heidelberg Castle from below.

We really enjoyed exploring Heidelberg castle. I had low expectations coming here knowing most of it was in ruins.

But, its troubled history and old architecture added to the uniqueness of the castle. They kept the grounds well, and the views of the town were unrivaled.

Having the giant wine barrel and the apothecary museum on the castle complex grounds made our visit even more interesting. It may only be a skeleton of what was once a grand palace but it was still worth a visit.

Tips for Visiting Heidelberg Castle

• Admission Ticket for the Palace, funicular, Great Tun and Apothecary Museum: Adults € 9.00; Children (ages 6-14) € 4.50
• Guided tours are available which is an extra fee to admission prices. Adults € 6.00; Families € 15.00; An audio guide is also available in several languages for € 6.00
• Get there early. The palace grounds open at 9:00 AM daily. We found that more tour buses lined up the street as the day progressed.
• Walk around the nearby gardens which also has similar panoramic views from the terrace of the river and valley.
• There are four ways to get to the castle:

Car: There are few parking spaces but in low tourist season, it’s possible to park here s my brother (who lives an hour away has done). Though, the road was already closed during our visit.

Bike: The bike route is the same road for cars.

Walk: We saw signs to go up to the castle next to Rathaus and Kornmarkt. Burgweg is the route to the castle which eventually splits into two routes. There is scenic route with no steps and the shorter route with steps.

Funicular: The funicular or Bergbahnen is the most popular way to get to the castle. We parked our car in one of the parking garages in the Old Town area and went to Kornmarkt to buy tickets there. The castle is the first stop and the funicular goes all the way to Heidelberg’s highest point, Konigstuhl.

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