Germany: Triberg and Heidelberg

It is our last day in Germany.  I can not believe that two weeks have flown by so quickly.  We have packed a ton of cities, museums, cathedrals, and activities into our trip and this is our last day to finish up all that we want to see and do before travelling home.  I am missing my children like crazy at this point but feel like I need a few more days to soak up some more of Germany and all it has to offer.  Oh well.  We will come again.  Joe has already declared that we are coming back next year to see what we didn't see this year.  He just can't get enough of his first love (and I don't mean me!)

We started our day by grabbing our last breakfast at a bakery.  Soft breads, bagels, and pastries were consumed as we drove through the Black Forest to Triberg all the while looking and shopping for all the different and famous cuckoo clocks. 

These store-front clocks were amazing and fun because when they chimed during each hour, the woodcutter would chop wood, dancers would come out of the windows, cuckoo birds would cluck, and waterwheels would turn.   I loved them!

After walking through the quaint villages and debating over cuckoo clocks, we decided to take a quick hike to Triberg Waterfall.  It was another cloudy and somewhat rainy day but the hike was still fun and the waterfall was beautiful.

Sam and Marquessa standing on front of Triberg Waterfall.  (Can't find the pic of us)

After our hike, we headed into Heidelberg to check into our hotel for our last night in Germany.  We stayed in the Neckartal Hotel and after unloading, visited the Heidelberg Castle.  It was a quick visit because we got stuck in a lot of traffic on the way to Heidelberg.  Thus, the tours were closing so we just explored the grounds and took pictures of the outside of the castle.

Heidelberg Castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.  The castle has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The earliest castle structure was built before AD 1214 and later expanded into 2 castles around 1294.  However, in 1537, a lightning-bolt destroyed the upper castle.  The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires.  In 1764, another lightning-bolt destroyed some rebuilt sections.

When Rupert III of Germany became the King (Emperor) of Germany in 1401, the castle was so small that on his return from his coronation, he had to camp out in the Augustinians' monastery, on the site of today's University Square.  What he desired was more space for his entourage and court and to impress his guests, but also additional defenses to turn the castle into a fortress.

After Rupert's death in 1410, his land was divided between his four sons.  It was during the reign of Louis V, Elector Palatine (1508–1544) that Martin Luther came to Heidelberg to defend one of his theses and paid a visit to the castle.  He was shown around by Louis's brother, Wolfgang, Count Palatine, and in a letter to his friend praised the castle's beauty and its defenses.

It was during the Thirty Years War that arms were raised against the castle for the first time.  This period marks the end of the castle's construction; the centuries to follow brought with them destruction and rebuilding.  After his loss at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620, Frederick V was on the run as an outlaw and had to release his troops prematurely, leaving the Palatinate undefended against General Tilly, the supreme commander of the Imperial and Holy Roman Empire's troops.  On 26 August 1622, Tilly commenced his attack on Heidelberg, taking the town on 16 September, and the castle few days later.

When the Swedes captured Heidelberg on 5 May 1633 and opened fire on the castle from the Königstuhl hill behind it, Tilly handed over the castle.  The following year, the emperor's troops tried to recapture the castle, but it was not until July 1635 that they succeeded.  It remained in their possession until the Peace of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years War was signed.  The new ruler, Charles Louis and his family did not move into the ruined castle until 7 October 1649.

On 29 September 1688, the French troops marched into the Palatinate and on 24 October moved into Heidelberg. At war against the allied European powers, France's war council decided to destroy all fortifications and to lay waste to the Palatinate in order to prevent an enemy attack from this area.  As the French withdrew from the castle on 2 March 1689, they set fire to it and blew the front off the Fat Tower.  Portions of the town were also burned, but the mercy of a French general, René de Froulay de Tessé, who told the townspeople to set small fires in their homes to create smoke and the illusion of burning prevented wider destruction.

Immediately upon his accession in 1690, Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine had the walls and towers rebuilt.  When the French again reached the gates of Heidelberg in 1691 and 1692, the town's defenses were so good that they did not gain entry.  On 18 May 1693 the French were yet again at the town's gates and took it on 22 May.  However, they did not attain control of the castle and destroyed the town in attempt to weaken the castle's main support base.  The castle's occupants capitulated the next day.  Now the French took the opportunity to finish off the work started in 1689, after their hurried exit from the town.  The towers and walls, that had survived the last wave of destruction, were blown up with mines.

 

In 1697 the Treaty of Ryswick was signed, marking the end of the War of the Grand Alliance and finally bringing peace to the town.  Plans were made to pull down the castle and to reuse parts of it for a new palace in the valley.  When difficulties with this plan became apparent, the castle was patched up.

Karl Phillip's successor Karl Theodor planned to move his court back to Heidelberg Castle.  However, on 24 June 1764, lightning struck the court building twice in a row, again setting the castle on fire, which he regarded as a sign from heaven and changed his plans.  Victor Hugo, who had come to love the ruins of the castle, also saw it as a divine signal:

   "One could even say that the very heavens had intervened. On 23 June 1764, the day before Karl   Theodor was to move into the castle and make it his seat (which, by the bye, would have been a great disaster, for if Karl Theodor had spent his thirty years there, these austere ruins which we today so admire would certainly have been decorated in the pompadour style); on this day, then, with the prince's furnishings already arrived and waiting in the Church of the Holy Spirit, fire from heaven hit the octagonal tower, set light to the roof, and destroyed this five hundred year old castle in very few hours."                                                                                                      --Victor Hugo, Heidelberg

In the following decades, basic repairs were made, but Heidelberg Castle remained essentially a ruin.
Heidelberg Castle receded even further from his thoughts and the rooms which had still had roofs were taken over by craftsmen.  The structure was decaying and the townsfolk were helping themselves to stone, wood, and iron from the castle to build their own houses.  The statuary and ornaments were also fair game.

The savior of the castle was the French count Charles de Graimberg.   He fought the government of Baden, which viewed the castle as an "old ruin with a multitude of tasteless, crumbling ornaments", for the preservation of the building.  Until 1822, he served as a voluntary castle warden, and lived for a while in the Glass Wing, where he could keep an eye on the courtyard.  Long before the origin of historic preservation in Germany, he was the first person to take an interest in the conservation and documentation of the castle, which never have occurred to any of the Romantics.  Graimberg asked Thomas A. Leger to prepare the first castle guide.  With his pictures of the castle, of which many copies were produced, Graimberg promoted the castle ruins and drew many tourists to the town.

In 1883, the Grand Duchy of Baden established a "Castle field office", which made a detailed plan for preserving or repairing the main building.  They completed their work in 1890, which led a commission of specialists from across Germany to decide that while a complete or partial rebuilding of the castle was not possible, it was possible to preserve it in its current condition.  Only the Friedrich Building, whose interiors were fire damaged, but not ruined, would be restored. This reconstruction was done from 1897 to 1900 by Karl Schäfer.

In the 20th century, Americans spread Heidelberg's reputation outside Europe.  Thus, Japanese also often visit the Heidelberg Castle during their trips to Europe.  Heidelberg has, at the beginning of the 21st century, more than three million visitors a year and about 1,000,000 overnight stays.  Most of the foreign visitors come either from the USA or Japan.  The most important attraction, according to surveys by the Geographical Institute of the University of Heidelberg, is the castle with its observation terraces.  Some of the visitors fall in love with the town, so they decide to get married at the castle. There are about 100 weddings a year at the castle's chapel.

We had our last German meal at the Goldener Falke Restaurant in the Market Plaza and then stopped to buy German chocolate and last minute items to take home.  Sam is still trying to figure out how to read about German food.  And he was trying to distract the waiters from seeing him pull out a Diet Coke from his backpack to refill his glass.

We walked along the shopping district and took our last pictures of Heidelberg as it started raining.  How ironic that we started and ended our trip with clouds and rain.  But it was still a wonderful and memorable trip with some sunshiny moments too.  As it began pouring, we jumped back into our van and headed back to the hotel.  We had another tiring night ahead of us with no air conditioning AGAIN (although the rain kept us cool) and the packing and re-organizing of our luggage before a long flight home!