What is the Heidelberg self-guided walking tour?
The Heidelberg self-guided walking tour is an audio-guided walk through the old town, told on your phone, so you need neither a guide nor a group. Plan on roughly 3 hours: 38 minutes go on walking, the route covers 3 km, and at each of the 10 stops you pause to hear the story of the place. The castle ruins watch over you for most of the way.
On Hauptstraße the narration explains why the Haus zum Riesen is said to be built with stones from a castle tower blown up by French troops. On Universitätsplatz you hear about the university founded in 1386, the oldest in today's Germany, and the words Dem lebendigen Geist, to the living spirit, above the New University. At the Marktplatz the Church of the Holy Spirit recalls the wall that split Protestants from Catholics for more than two centuries, and beside the Old Bridge the bronze monkey comes with its local superstitions about wealth and coming back.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 38 min · 3 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the walking tour
Listen
Each stop opens a chapter about electors, students and bridge-builders, and about the legends Heidelberg tells of them. The same text is on screen for anyone who prefers to read.
Stroll
Google Maps guides you between the stops: 38 minutes of walking over 3 km, much of it along the pedestrian Hauptstraße.
Break off
Sit down for a coffee on the Marktplatz or ride the funicular up to the castle, then carry on later that day or on another one.
Eat and browse
Tips for food and shops near the route come with the stops. Where you begin and in which order you visit the rest is up to you in the app.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of people. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Walk when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who the walking tour is for
A first visit
One walk ties the university, the churches and the bridge into a single picture of the town below the castle.
A day in Heidelberg
3 hours covers the old town and leaves time for the castle itself or the Philosophenweg on the far bank of the Neckar.
Anyone who avoids groups
Hauptstraße is busy enough without a tour group: you stop where something interests you and move on when you decide.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Groups of up to 5 work best; larger groups split up, one ticket per person.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
The walk stop by stop: Bismarckplatz, Universitätsplatz, the Old Bridge, Karlsplatz
10 stops · about 38 min walking · start: Bismarckplatz park · finish: Karlsplatz
The narration opens in the small park on Bismarckplatz, at the western end of Hauptstraße. Walking east along the pedestrian street you meet the Haus zum Riesen and the Palatinate Museum, then the university quarter with Universitätsplatz and the Jesuit Church. At the Marktplatz the walk swings north to the Neckar, where the Brückenaffe sits at the foot of the Old Bridge; back in the old town, Kornmarkt and finally Karlsplatz lie directly below the castle ruins. The app lets you pick another first stop or another order, and none of the stops charges admission.
Open the route map ↗
1Bismarckplatz parkStart
The small park on Bismarckplatz lies at the western edge of the old town, next to Heidelberg's busiest tram and bus interchange. The square is named after Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of the German Empire, and from here Hauptstraße, one of the longest pedestrian streets in Germany, runs east into the old town.
2Haus zum Riesen
This baroque mansion on Hauptstraße was built in the early 18th century, when Heidelberg was rebuilt after the French destruction of the 1690s. According to tradition its builder used stones from the castle's Thick Tower, which French troops had blown up, and the house is named after the larger-than-life statue on its façade.
3Palatinate Museum (Kurpfälzisches Museum)
Heidelberg's museum of art and history occupies the Palais Morass, a baroque town palace built in the early 18th century for a law professor of the university. Its collections include Tilman Riemenschneider's carved Twelve Apostles Altar and a cast of the jaw of Homo heidelbergensis, found near Heidelberg in 1907.
4Universitätsplatz
Heidelberg University, founded in 1386 by Elector Rupert I, is the oldest university in today's Germany. On this square stand the baroque Old University and the New University of 1931, built largely with American donations and inscribed with the words Dem lebendigen Geist, to the living spirit, and a lion fountain.
5Jesuit Church
The Jesuit Church was begun in 1712, at a time when the Catholic electors of the Palatinate were strengthening the Catholic faith in Heidelberg. Its tall façade of red Neckar sandstone faces a quiet square in the university quarter, while the bell tower was only added in the 19th century.
Read the full story →
6Marktplatz (Market Square)
The market square is dominated by the Gothic Church of the Holy Spirit, burial place of the Palatinate electors, which for more than two centuries was divided by a wall between Protestants and Catholics. Small shops are built between its buttresses, and opposite stands the Haus zum Ritter of 1592, one of the few houses to survive the fires of 1693.
7Brückenaffe (Bridge Monkey)
This bronze monkey by the sculptor Gernot Rumpf has sat beside the old-town end of the Old Bridge since 1979. It recalls a stone monkey that once stood on the medieval bridge tower. Local tradition says that touching its mirror brings wealth and touching its fingers means you will return to Heidelberg.
Read the full story →
8Old Bridge
The Old Bridge, officially the Karl Theodor Bridge, was built of stone between 1786 and 1788 under Elector Charles Theodore, after ice had destroyed the wooden bridge before it. Its bridge gate with two white towers was part of the medieval town wall. German troops blew up the bridge in 1945, and it was rebuilt by 1947.
Read the full story →
9Kornmarkt
The former grain market below the castle is centred on a baroque statue of the Virgin Mary from the early 18th century, set up as a sign of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. From the square you get a classic view up to the castle ruins, and the lower station of the funicular to the castle is close by.
10KarlsplatzFinish
This wide square at the eastern end of Hauptstraße lies directly below the castle and offers one of the best views of its ruins from the old town. On one side stands the Palais Boisserée, where the brothers Sulpiz and Melchior Boisserée showed their famous collection of old German paintings in the early 19th century.
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Chile –
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