It’s been a while again since I last posted about my Viking River Cruise. Today I want to continue sharing some of the many pictures from Heidelberg Castle. My very first post about the castle told you about the English Wing, built for Elisabeth the Winter Queen.
You can see it above along with the Dicker Turm on the left. And I also told you about the beautiful Elisabeth Gate that Friedrich had built for his new bride in a night. I left off where we had gone into the courtyard through the Clock Tower and learned the legend of the witch and visited the Great Heidelberg Tun.
The central courtyard is surrounded by a multitude of buildings, each one built in a different style and during a different period. The large building above is the Friedrichsbau, built by Friedrich IV between 1601 and 1607. The building on the left is what is left of the Frauenzimmerbau. It originally had several more stories on top. The building to the right of the Friedrichsbau is the Glaserner Saalbau. Behind it is the Bell Tower – you can just see the top – and to the far right is the Ottheinrichsbau. And there are several other buildings or wings not pictured here.
I took the most pictures of the Friedrichsbau, as it was the true Palace section of the castle.
Here is one of the other wings on the left in the foreground, the Ruprechtsbau, which I believe is the oldest section of the castle.
The Freidrichsbau really is so ornate compared to the other buildings. And the ornamentation is also on the back of the building facing the town, which was not usually done.
The figures on the facade are the Elector Ancestors. And the dwarf gables on the top have allegorical figures representing the seasons and other mythical or legendary folk. The ground level is where the chapel is located and the upper floors were living quarters.
On both sides there are these lovely carved stone tablets with more mythical creatures and beings.
This is the back side of the wing, facing the town. It does not have the Elector Ancestors, but it still has beautifully carved elements and the same lions that are found on the other side. The large windows on the bottom are where the chapel is.
And the same Nekar Valley Sandstone was used for this building.
It stands out even on a rainy and cloudy morning.
So pretty, you can see why it is called the palace wing.
Can you imagine the view the residential rooms above would have had of the town below?
There is an arched breezeway that connects to the inner courtyard so you don’t have to enter the chapel to get from one to the other. There are also more of the tablets and lions. We were actually on what was called the Atlan when I took this. It is a large observation deck on this side of the Friedrichsbau.
All of the tablets and lions were different.
This one has ladies, animals that appear to be rams or goats and a large mythical face at the bottom. I have no idea what they represented.
This one just has the mythical faces. Do you see the ones on the sides at the bottom? At firs it just looks like some kind of decorative carving, but then you see the eyes, the noses and the mouths. Some kind of animal or creature.
This one also has the little hidden faces that look rather sad.
The lions are used all over this part of the castle. There were also lions on the Gate Tower.
Isn’t this just beautiful? And you know what, there was another legend we learned about while standing on the Atlan.
The Atlan, or today’s visitor’s terrace was also called the Balcony of the Princes. It is here that you will find the Knight’s Footprint. Legend has it that when a fire broke out one of the visiting knights, not familiar with the layout of the palace found himself in a dire situation where he was trapped in the burning building. Not having any other recourse, he jumped out a window and landed on the Atlan, the force of the jump and the weight of his armor denting the sandstone terrace below. And of course, there is the challenge now to see whose foot will fit the hollowed out space to see if they are of knightly heritage.
And like all good legends and fairy tales, sometimes there are more than one version available. The other version of this legend is that a knight was romancing a lady at the castle when the Elector Price arrived home unexpectedly. The knight, not wanting to be caught in the act, jumped out of the window and left the impression on the sandstone of the Atlan. In that version, whoever fit the impression would be surely killed for taking such liberties while the Elector Prince was away. My friend Jerry did try to see if his foot fit the mold. Lets just say he’s not a knight and he won’t have to keep a look out over his shoulder for one of the Elector Princes coming after him.
On the Atlan there was this sweet little lookout tower where you could see the Neckar River and Heidelberg below.
You could see the Old Town and new town in the distance.
And in just a little while we would too be in Kornmarkt below, just like that group. And we would be looking up at the impressive castle on the hill.
But across the Neckar River were some beautiful luxury homes.
I am sure many were used for vacation homes, too. There were a few modern types, like the one on the bottom in the middle above that had a garden on its roof. But most of them were old and charming.
I would love to see those beauties up close.
They continued up the Neckar. And below the Atlan were terraced gardens and there was supposed to be a walking path down to Heidelberg. Thank goodness we had our buses to take us back down when it was time. Just look at those bright yellow wallflowers growing up the side of the castle. I just love how they do that!
This is also where we got our best view of the Bell Tower where, you guessed it, the bell was. This tower has been a ruin since lightening struck in 1764. They were doing some reconstruction while were were there as evidenced by the scaffolding. And according to Evelyn, the bell was very effective and could be heard all up and down the valley when it rang.
It was time for us to head back in to the courtyard, so I took one last look at this side of the Friedrichsbau.
Our guide Evelyn told us more about the Ancestors of the Electors on this side of the Friedrichsbau. There are four levels of Ancestors.
They are not all pictured here, but here is a list of who the Ancestors are:
- Zwerchgiebel : Charlemagne , Otto of Wittelsbach , Ludwig the Kelheimer , Rudolf the Stammler
- The upper floor, four crowned Wittelsbachers : Ludwig the Bavarian , Ruprecht I. , Otto of Hungary , Christoph of Denmark
- Middle full floor, the university founders Ruprecht I , Frederick I , Frederick the Wise , Ottheinrich
- Lower floor: Friedrich der Fromme , Ludwig VI. , Johann Casimir , Friedrich IV.
Here is one of the Friedrichs…
And here is another of the Friedrich…I want to say he is Friedrich the Wise but I am not 100% certain.
There are so many things to take in on this side. Not only the Ancestors, but there are all these little “heads” sticking out everywhere. And crests and gilded figures.
In the middle of the dormers there is a statue of Lady Justice.
There really was so much to see and we were there for such a short time. You could probably spend an entire day or more just looking at all of the different figures on the Friedrichsbau.
But we still had to learn about the other wings of the castle, like the Glaserner Saalbau and its sundial.
Until next time…
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
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