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The castle gardens, constructed between 1616 and 1619 by garden architect Salomon de Caus, were commissioned by Prince Elector Friedrich V for his wife Elizabeth. Before being destroyed during the War of the Palatine Succession in 1693, the gardens were regarded as a masterpiece of their time. The gardens, built upon several terraces, were made up of many flowers beds, mazes and arbours, numerous sculptures, a heated greenhouse with orange trees, large fish ponds, waterfalls, and a man-made g...

The Heidelberg Tun, or the “World’s Largest Wine Barrel”, was built in 1751 by Prince Elector Karl Theodor to house the wine paid as taxes by the wine growers of the Palatine. It stands seven meters high, is eight and a half meters wide, holds 220,000 liters (58,124 gallons) of wine, and has a dance floor built on top of it. The court jester who guarded the cask during the reign of Prince Elector Carl Philip, a Tyrolean dwarf nick-named Perkeo, was supposedly known for his ability to drink la...

On the lower floor of the Otto Heinrich Building (Ottheinrichsbau), is the Apothecary Museum. This unique museum allows the visitor to learn about the history of the pharmacy and of dispensaries. The collection includes a complete pharmacist’s office, a laboratory, pharmacopoeias, manuscripts, a wide array of vessels, mortars, and technical flasks, and over 1,000 raw drugs representing medicine from the 17th to 19th centuries.

There are three times every summer when the well-known Schlossbeleuchtung and fireworks display takes place – the first Saturday’s in June and September, and the second Saturday in July. The castle lighting is done in memory of the three times when the castle went up in flames (1689, 1693 and 1764). The first two times were due to wars with the French, and the last time by lightning. After the castle “burning” begins, a 15 minute fireworks display is launched from the Old Bridge.How to get th...