Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg Land, which is in the southwestern part of Germany. This city is on the Neckar River, which has been channelized. The river comes out of the wooded hills of Odenwald and flows into the Rhine plain. In 1196, it was first named.

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 From 1196 to 1720, it was the capital of the Rhenish Palatinate (Pfalz) and the home of the electoral count palatine. It was destroyed by fire in 1622 during the Thirty Years’ War and by the French in 1689 and 1693, so most of its important buildings are in the Baroque style, which was popular until the late 18th century, instead of the Gothic mediaeval style. The land was given to Baden in 1802 and grew a lot in the 20th century.

The University of Heidelberg, also known as the Ruprecht-Karl-Universitat, is Germany’s oldest college or university. It was started by Rupert I and officially recognised by Pope Urban VI in 1386. Its Geological-Paleontological Institute is home to the Heidelberg jaw, a fossilised jawbone that was found nearby in 1907. It is thought to be about 500,000 years old.

Heidelberg is still mostly a university and residential city, but it has also grown a large industry base. Some things that are manufactured are machines, precise instruments, and goods made from leather, tobacco, and wood. While the castle is impressive, the major business is tourism; every year, several million people come to see it. This beautiful red limestone building, which stands 330 feet (100 metres) above the river and looks out over the city, was destroyed by the French in 1689 and 1693 and then struck by lightning in 1764. The building started in the 1300s, but the most important parts, like the Otto-Heinrichsbau and Friedrichsbau, were completed during the Renaissance. The Heidelberg Tun (1751), a huge wine barrel that can hold 49,000 gallons (185,500 litres), is in the bottom of the Friedrichsbau. A cable train runs from the lower city to the castle and up to the top of the Konigsstuhl mountain range. Only the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church; 1400–36), the Marstall (1590; formerly the Royal Mews), and the Knight’s House (1592) were not destroyed in 1693. The Old (or Karl-Theodor) Bridge (1786–88, rebuilt after 1945), the town hall (1701–03), and the Jesuitenkirche (1712) are some other important features.

The Philosopher’s Way, a path that looks out over Heidelberg’s old town from the north side of the Neckar, got its name from the university teachers who liked the view and used it for their research. Since then, the path has been improved and made longer. If you walk it all the way, you’ll see a park honouring the poet Friedrich Holderlin, the Thingstatte, an amphitheatre built by the Nazi Party in the 1930s that is now overgrown, and the ruins of St. Michael’s Monastery. About 147,312 people lived there in 2010.