In th city of Hidelberg, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany

 "Heidelberg curls up against the Neckar River in a narrow pass between a pair of mountains, like a flower preserved between two books." -- Ben Crair

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(in the German state of Baden-Württemberg) On the Neckar River in southwest Germany, the first settlement of the area of Heidelberg can be traced back to Roman and Celtic times. First mentioned in 1196, Heidelberg was built, together with its castle, in the 13th century. Heidelberg's heyday as the capital of the Electoral Palatinate began not least with the foundation of its university (the oldest in Germany) in 1386.
+ Located south of Frankfurt, Heidelberg, which is part of the densely populated Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, is on the eastern edge of the Upper Rhine Plain at the place where the river Neckar leaves its narrow valley through the Odenwald mountains and begins the last leg of its journey across the plain toward Mannheim, where it merges into the Rhine, about 20 kilometers (12,5 mi.) downstream.

+ Toward the end of the 17th century, during the War of the Palatinate Succession, the city and its castle were destroyed by the French. The city retained its medieval ground plan, but was rebuilt in the Baroque style. In 1803 Heidelberg passed to Baden and became an important university town and a popular tourist destination -– also for poets and philosophers, such as Friedrich Hölderlin, Clemens Brentano, and Joseph von Eichendorff, who made Heidelberg the "City of Romanticism."

+ In 1945 Heidelberg was taken by American forces without major destruction and subsequently became the headquarters of the US Army in Europe and of NATO. The building of the university campus at "Neuenheimer Feld" in 1951 sealed its claim to being a city of science. It was only logical that this led to the establishment of a technology park in 1984.

+ Surrounded by forest, Germany’s oldest and most famous university town is renowned for its baroque Altstadt, beautiful riverside setting and evocative half-ruined hilltop castle, which draw 11.9 million visitors a 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, who was inspired by Heidelberg to paint some of his greatest landscapes.

+ 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, caused it to be named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2014. Heidelberg’s Altstadt has a red-roofed townscape of remarkable architectural unity. After having been all but destroyed by French troops under Louis XIV (1690s), it was rebuilt during the 18th century. Unlike many German cities, it emerged from WWII almost unscathed.

+ Heidelberg is among the warmest regions of Germany and plants atypical of the central-European climate flourish here, including almond and fig trees, many kinds of palm trees, and olive trees.