Heidelberg – Germany’s oldest university city
Heidelberg is worth a trip to, because it has marvellous places to see, features outstanding events, unusual shops as well as culinary highlights. The historical university town is nicely situated and has such a charisma with pulsating economy and culture that every year three million tourists are attracted to it.
The Heidelberg castle with its extensive park is a true crowd-puller. Guest and visitors from all over the world come to the park to look from green terraces down to the Old Town and the river Neckar. A mountain railway serves those guests who prefer a more comfortably journey.
Opposite the Heidelberg castle is the Heiligenberg with its famous philosopher's way from where one has a breathtaking view of the town, the river and the close mountains of the Black Forest. Wells, monuments, historical buildings, churches and monestaries will make a visit even more interesting.
A medieval bridge gate is on the side of the old town and has always been a popular motive to painters and photographers. „From here the bridge appears in a beauty like maybe no other bridge in the world …“, presumed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1797 when he saw it for the first time. Indeed, the bridge would not need three statues to glow in ist own beauty. The Karl-Theodor-bridge, as it is officially called, was reconstructed 9 times, the last time in 1788. Carried by eight pillars, today's version is the first to be completely made of stone.
Germany’s oldest university was founded in 1386 in Heidelberg. "SEMPER APERTUS", always open shall be the book of lecture is the motto at the entrance hall of the old university. The Ruperto Carola University is a full university with nearly 31,000 students studying in twelve faculties in the winter semestre of 2013/14. More than 5,000 scientists, among them 420 professors teaching and do research here. Nearly 20 percent of the students are foreigners who came to Heidelberg in order to deepen their knowledge.
Nobel Prize Laureates and famous people like philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, chemicist Robert Bunsen, physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, economist and social scientist Max Weber studied, did research and teaching in Heidelberg. Today, the Ruprecht Karls University is acknowledged as one of the best in fields of medicine, life sciences, chemistry and mathematics.
TIP: In Heidelberg one can lose his/her heart and discover the love to a town. There is incredibly much to explore and discover in this historical town, thus take your time and remember to wear comfortable shoes, because most streets in the Old Town are made of cobblestones.
For further information: http://www.heidelberg-marketing.de/en.html
Photo: Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock
