Heidelberg

Heidelberg, a town in Baden, near the left bank of the Neckar, 54 miles S. of Frankfort-onthe-Main, is situated in beautiful country at the foot of the hill called the Kdnigsstuhl (" King's-seat"). Above the town, at the height of 300 feet, are the ruins of a castle whose foundations were laid in the 13th century. Here the Electors-Palatine resided from the 12th century till 1802; in its cellars is the Heidelberg Tun, which once held 50,000 gallons of wine. Among the buildings of Heidelberg the most notable are the church of the Holy Ghost (late Gothic) and the church of St. Peter, to which Jerome of Prague nailed his theses. The university, founded by the Elector Rupert I., in 1386, is one of the most famous of German seats of learning. There are upwards of 100 professors and lecturers, and nearly 1,000 students. It has a fine collection of MSS. and 500,000 books. Among those who have held chairs at this university are Reuchlin, Puffendorf, Gervinus, Kuno Fischer, Helmholtz, and Bunsen. Heidelberg, as a centre of Calvinism, suffered much in the Thirty Years' War; and its castle was almost destroyed by the French forty years later. Books and wine are the chief objects of trade.