Heidelberg Disputation

Nestling in the hills at the edge of the flat Rhine valley lies the town of Heidelberg. It sits on the river Neckar upstream from Mannheim. We began our visit with a ride on the funicular railway up to the mostly-ruined castle above.

The castle began life in the 13th century guarding the important river crossing in the valley below. But it was destroyed by Louis XIV at the end of the 17th century. Inbetween-times the castle watched over the meeting in 1518 between the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli and the German reformer Martin Luther.

Of the sixteen points put forward for agreement, they agreed on fifteen, and even part of the sixteenth. But that last half-point of disagreement resulted in the meeting going down in history as a Disputation instead of an Agreement. Thus the two Reformations, German and Swiss, continue separately to this day.

The castle is also famous for the largest wine barrel in the world. Built in 1750, it held 58,000 gallons of wine, which is 220,000 litres. There was even a pipe running from the barrel which allowed the wine to be pumped directly to the King's Hall.


The cathedral down in the town square had a splendid new organ which was being played for the lunchtime recital as we arrived. It was great to see the beautiful stained glass windows and hear the music reverberating around the building.


We then drove farther up the river to the village of Hirschhorn where we had coffee and cake in the castle cafe, high up and looking out over the river. At this point there is one of the dams that raises the river depth for the barges that ply up and down the Neckar's river valley. Each dam has a lock to allow the barges to pass through.


We drove back to Mannheim along the winding road through the hills down to the flat plain of the Rhine valley.