With its grandiose castle ruins, its winding old town, its location on the steep, green slopes of the lovely Neckar valley and as the temporary home of numerous philosophers, poets and thinkers, Heidelberg is considered the epitome of German Romanticism par excellence.
Founded in 1386, the Ruprecht Karls University is the oldest in the country. With its 30,000 students, together with several other universities, it gives the city a distinctly youthful flair.
With around 160,000 inhabitants, Heidelberg is the fifth largest city in Baden-Württemberg, one of the wealthiest federal states in Germany. At the transition of the Neckar from the Odenwald to the Rhine plain, the city is located in one of the warmest regions of the state. Protected from cold northerly and easterly winds, the Philosophenweg with its picture-postcard views of the castle and the old town is even considered to be the warmest place in the whole of Germany. So it's no wonder that even Mediterranean plants such as almond and fig trees thrive here.
