Heidelberg Old Town Guided Walking Tour

Marktplatz and the Church of the Holy Spirit

Marktplatz is where the Heidelberg Old Town tour begins and where the town has met since the Middle Ages. The square is framed by the Town Hall of 1701, the Hercules Fountain that celebrates the rebuilding of the town after French troops burned it in 1693, and the Haus zum Ritter opposite, a Renaissance merchant's house of 1592 that survived the fire. On market days the stalls spill across the cobbles; on other days the cafés take over.

The Church of the Holy Spirit dominates the square. Built between 1398 and 1515, it once held the famous Palatine Library and for two centuries was divided by a wall so that Catholics and Protestants could worship under one roof. Your guide explains these stories outside; the church is usually open to visitors, and climbing its tower is a popular extra after the walk. Plan about fifteen minutes here before the group moves into the lanes.

The Jesuit Quarter and Karlsplatz

A few steps south of Hauptstraße the mood changes: the Jesuit Quarter was laid out after 1700 when the order was invited to re-Catholicise the town, and its centrepiece is the Jesuit Church, a bright Baroque hall with a white interior and twin-towered façade completed in the nineteenth century. Around it stand the former college, the seminary and quiet lanes that most day-trippers walk straight past.

The tour continues to Karlsplatz, an open square created in the nineteenth century and named after Elector Karl Theodor, with the Academy of Sciences on one side and the best ground-level view of Heidelberg Castle on the other. This is the classic photo stop of any Heidelberg walking tour: the red sandstone ruins sit directly above the rooftops. Many visitors ask whether Heidelberg Castle is worth visiting; your guide explains how to get there by funicular or on foot after the tour.

Universitätsplatz and the Students' Prison

Heidelberg University was founded in 1386, which makes it the oldest in Germany, and Universitätsplatz is still its heart. The Old University of 1712 stands on one side with its assembly hall, the New University of the 1930s on the other, and the Lion Fountain in between. Your guide tells how the professors, students and their duelling fraternities shaped life in the Old Town for six centuries.

Behind the Old University, in Augustinergasse, is the Students' Prison, used from 1778 until 1914 to lock up students for minor offences such as night-time rowdiness or freeing the town's pigs. Prisoners covered the walls and ceilings with silhouettes, verses and candle-soot drawings, and a spell inside became a badge of honour. The walk shows the building from outside and explains the tradition; Students' Prison tickets are easy to buy afterwards if you want to see the graffiti rooms, which takes around twenty minutes.

Hauptstraße and the hidden alleys

Hauptstraße runs the full length of the Old Town for about 1.6 kilometres, which makes it one of the longest pedestrian streets in Europe. Lined with Baroque façades, student cafés, bookshops and the Palais Morass that houses the Kurpfälzisches Museum, it is the street everyone walks, yet the Heidelberg Old Town tour spends only part of its time on it.

The real pleasure comes from the detours. The guide turns into narrow alleys such as Untere Straße and Pfaffengasse, into courtyards with carved doorways and into small gardens that appear unexpectedly between the houses. Here you learn why Heidelberg has so many Baroque buildings on medieval ground plans, where the old town walls ran and which corners are best for a quiet lunch after the tour. Comfortable shoes matter: the cobbles are uneven and the walk covers roughly two kilometres.

The Old Bridge over the Neckar

The walk ends at the Old Bridge, officially the Karl Theodor Bridge, built of red sandstone in 1786 to 1788 on the site of eight earlier wooden bridges that were lost to floods and ice. Its nine arches, the twin-towered medieval Bridge Gate and the bronze Bridge Monkey holding a mirror make it the most-visited spot in the Old Town; rubbing the monkey's mirror is said to bring you back to Heidelberg.

From the middle of the bridge you get the view that fills every postcard: the castle above the roofs, the Church of the Holy Spirit, the wooded Heiligenberg opposite and the Neckar flowing towards the Rhine. Your guide points out the Philosophers' Way on the far bank, a thirty-minute uphill walk that many visitors do straight after the tour for the best panorama of Heidelberg. The bridge is free to cross and open at all hours, so it is also the best time-of-day stop for sunset photos.