In the city of Heidelberg, in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany

 "Everybody has heard of the great Heidelberg Tun, and most people have seen it, no doubt. It is a wine-cask as big as a cottage, and some traditions say it holds eighteen hundred thousand bottles, and other traditions say it holds eighteen hundred million barrels. I think it likely that one of these statements is a mistake, and the other is a lie." — Mark Twain

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(in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany) The city of Heidelberg lies on the Neckar River where it emerges from the hills of Odenwald (a forest) into the Rhine plain. It was first mentioned in 1196 and was the capital of the Rhenish Palatinate (Pfalz) and the residence of the electoral counts palatine until 1720. It was devastated in 1622 during the Thirty Years’ War and nearly destroyed by the French in 1689 and 1693, so most of its important buildings are in the Baroque architectural style (which prevailed until the late 18th century) rather than Gothic medieval. It passed to Baden in 1802 and experienced considerable growth in the 20th century.

+ Heidelberg remains primarily a university and residential city, but it also has developed a significant industrial base. Manufactures include machines, precision instruments, leather, and wood products. The main business, however, is the tourist trade; several million people visit the imposing Heidelberg Castle every year. They follow in the footsteps of the late 18th- and early 19th-century romantics, most notably the poet Goethe and Britain’s William Turner. Although devastated by the French in 1689 and 1693 and then struck by lightning in 1764, this magnificent red sandstone structure, 100 meters above the river, still dominates the city. Construction began in the 13th century, but the most notable work was done in the Renaissance and includes the Otto-Heinrichsbau and Friedrichsbau. In the cellar of the Friedrichsbau is the Heidelberg Tun (1751), an enormous wine cask with a capacity of 49,000 gallons (185,500 liters). The castle can be reached from the lower city by a cable railway, which continues to the summit of the Königsstuhl hill. The only other buildings to escape razing in 1693 were the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church), the Marstall (formerly the Royal Mews), and the Knight’s House. Other landmarks include the Old (or Karl-Theodor) Bridge, the Town Hall (1701–03), and the Jesuitenkirche (church).

+ In 1878, Mark Twain began his European travels with a three-month stay in Heidelberg, recounting his observations in A Tramp Abroad (1880). Heidelberg's rich literary history, along with its thriving contemporary scene, saw it named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2014.

+ The University of Heidelberg (Ruprecht-Karl-Universität), the oldest higher educational institution in Germany, was founded by Rupert I and chartered by Pope Urban VI in 1386. (Its Geological-Paleontological Institute houses the Heidelberg jaw, a fossil jawbone, allegedly 500,000 years old, that was found in the vicinity in 1907.)