HEIDELBERG

heidelberg, a town of germany, on the south bank of the neckar, 12 m. above its confluence with the rhine, 13 m. s.e. from mannheim and 54 m. from frankfort-on-main by rail. the situation of the town, lying between lofty hills covered with vineyards and forests, at the spot where the rapid neckar leaves the gorge and enters the plain of the rhine, is one of great natural beauty. the town itself consists practically of one long, narrow street--the hauptstrasse--running parallel to the river, from the railway station on the west to the karlstor on the east (where there is also a local station) for a distance of 2 m. to the south of this is the anlage, a pleasant promenade flanked by handsome villas and gardens, leading directly to the centre of the place. a number of smaller streets intersect the hauptstrasse at right angles and run down to the river, which is crossed by two fine bridges. of these, the old bridge on the east, built in 1788, has a fine gateway and is adorned with statues of minerva and the elector charles theodore of the palatinate; the other, the lower bridge, on the west, built in 1877, connects heidelberg with the important suburbs of neuenheim and handschuchsheim. of recent years the town has grown largely towards the west on both sides of the river; but the additions have been almost entirely of the better class of residences. heidelberg is an important railway centre, and is connected by trunk lines with frankfort, mannheim, karlsruhe, spires and wurzburg. electric trams provide for local traffic, and there are also several light railways joining it with the neighbouring villages. of the churches the chief are the protestant peterskirche dating from the 15th century and restored in 1873, to the door of which jerome of prague in 1460 nailed his theses; the heilige geist kirche (church of the holy ghost), an imposing gothic edifice of the 15th century; the jesuitenkirche (roman catholic), with a sumptuously decorated interior, and the new evangelical christuskirche. the town hall and the university buildings, dating from 1712 and restored in 1886, are commonplace erections; but to the south of the ludwigsplatz, upon which most of the academical buildings lie, stands the new university library, a handsome structure of pink sandstone in german renaissance style. in addition to the ludwigsplatz with its equestrian statue of the emperor william i. there are other squares in the town, among them being the bismarckplatz with a statue of bismarck, and the jubilaumsplatz. the chief attraction of heidelberg is the castle, which overhangs the east part of the town. it stands on the jettenbuhl, a spur of the konigsstuhl (1800 ft.), at a height of 330 ft. above the neckar. though now a ruin, yet its extent, its magnificence, its beautiful situation and its interesting history render it by far the most noteworthy, as it certainly is the grandest and largest, of the old castles of germany. the building was begun early in the 13th century. the elector palatine and german king rupert iii. (d. 1410) greatly improved it, and built the wing, ruprechtsbau or rupert's building, that bears his name. succeeding electors further extended and embellished it (see architecture, plate