A romantic castle ruin above a university town
Heidelberg is the embodiment of German Romanticism. The red sandstone ruins of its castle stand above the town, holding a vast wine barrel in its cellars. Below, the baroque old town stretches along the Neckar, with the Old Bridge and its gate towers leading across the river. The university, founded in 1386, is Germany's oldest, and its former student prison is covered in graffiti. Across the river, the Philosophers' Walk offers the classic view back over the town and the castle.