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Hello friends and colleagues, today I offer you another nice view of the interesting city of Heidelberg with the old bridge and the old castle. I hope you like it, then some letters about the city.

Heidelberg is a city located in the valley of the Neckar River in northwest Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It is famous for its historic center with the Heidelberg Palace and the oldest university in the country, making it an important tourist destination.
Heidelberg has 150,000 inhabitants. It is a "city-district" (Stadtkreis) and at the same time the seat of the Rhine-Neckar district that surrounds it (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis) in the densely populated Rhine-Neckar-Dreieck region that includes the cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. less than 30 km.
The jaw of the so-called "Man of Heidelberg", discovered in 1907, constitutes one of the first tests of human life in Europe approximately 600,000 years ago.

In the V century a. C., there was a Celtic fortress and a place of worship in the Heiligenberg, or «Mountain of the Saints».
In the year 40 d. C. the Roman army occupied a fort and built permanent camps there, as well as a signaling tower on the banks of the Neckar, constructing a wooden bridge over the river. Thus, the first civil settlements were developed under the protection of the camp. The Romans remained until 260 d. C., when the camp was conquered by Germanic peoples.
The origins of modern Heidelberg date back to the fifth century, when the village of Bergheim is mentioned for the first time in documents dating from the year 769. Bergheim was established in the middle of Heidelberg.

In 863, the monastery of San Miguel was founded in the Heiligenberg, inside the double wall of the Celtic fortress.

1155, the castle of Heidelberg is assumed by the house of Hohenstaufen.
In 1195, the Palatinate joined the House of Welf by marriage.
In 1225, Louis I, Duke of Bavaria obtained the Palatinate and therefore also the castle.
In 1356, the Palatine counts are granted wide-ranging rights in the famous "Golden Bull", in addition to becoming electors.

1386, the University of Heidelberg is founded by Ruperto I, Elector of the Palatinate. The university plays a fundamental role in the era of humanism and the Reformation and the conflict between Lutheranism and Calvinism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Heidelberg library, founded in 1421, is the oldest public library in Germany that still remains intact. A few months after the proclamation of the 95 theses, in April 1518, Martin Luther was received in Heidelberg for his defense.

In 1620, the royal crown of Bohemia was offered to the Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate (married to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James VI of Scotland). He became known as the "winter king", since he only reigned for one winter until the House of Habsburg regained the crown by force. This marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.

In 1622, after a siege of two months, the armies of the Catholic League, commanded by the Count of Tilly, conquered Heidelberg. Tilly gave the Pope the Bibliotheca Palatina of the Church of the Holy Spirit. The Bavarian branch of the house of Wittelsbach was made with the Palatinate and took the title of Prince Elector. In 1648, at the end of the war, the son of Federico V, Carlos Luis, can recover his titles and territories.
In order to strengthen his dynastic power, Carlos Luis married his daughter with Felipe I, Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, King of France. In 1685, on the death of Carlos Luis, Luis XIV claimed the right of succession, which was rejected, thus unleashing the war. In 1689, the city and castle were conquered by French troops, leading to its almost total destruction in 1693.

In 1815, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia formed the "Holy Alliance" in Heidelberg.

In 1848, it was decided to hold a German National Assembly in Heidelberg. In 1849, during the rebellion in the Palatinate and Baden, Heidelberg was the headquarters of a revolutionary army that was defeated by the Prussians near Waghaeusel. The city was occupied by the Prussian troops until 1850.

1920-1933, the University of Heidelberg and its reputation were favored by a number of notable doctors (Czerny) and humanists (Rohde, Weber).

1933-1945, during the Nazi regime, Heidelberg was one of the strongholds of the German National Socialist Workers Party, which was the most voted in the elections before 1933. Between 1934 and 1935, the Nazi regime built a huge amphitheater in Heiligenberg north of the old part of Heidelberg to celebrate the events of the SS. The theater is called Thingstätte and is still used for concerts and occasional events.

After the war, General George Patton died in Heidelberg on December 21, 1945 in traffic accident.
It has been speculated that Heidelberg was not bombed in the Second World War by the United States Army, because he wanted to use Heidelberg as a garrison after the war. In fact, as Heidelberg was neither an industrial center nor a transport hub, the air strikes focused on the industrial cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. In 1945, the University reopened thanks to the surgeon Karl Heinrich Bauer and the philosopher Karl Jaspers.
Source: Wikipedia.
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