Heidelberger Schloss

Description

"Heidelberger Schloss", a renaissance ruin dramatically perched 80 meters above the old town on the Königstuhl hillside in #Heidelberg, is one of the most important renaissance structures north of the Alps. Its earliest documented fortress dates to 1214, expanding into separate upper and lower castles around 1300, with the present site on Jettenbühl forming the lower one. Under the Electors Palatine, it evolved from a modest medieval stronghold, enlarged by Ruprecht I after his 1400 coronation as King of Germany for courtly splendor and defense, into a renaissance palace complex. Key 16th- and early 17th-century additions under electors like Ludwig V, Ottheinrich, and Friedrich IV brought ornate wings, ancestor statues, arcaded facades, and the Hortus Palatinus garden.