Heidelberg Palace was built over a period of more than three hundred years. Its buildings do not reflect a uniform style. Architectural evidence of primarily Gothic and Renaissance elements can still be found today. The Thirty Years' War ended the heyday of the palace, and attempts to rebuild it failed due to repeated devastation.
The Gothic Period
The buildings from the first palace building phase are predominantly unadorned and nearly without decoration. The "Ruprechtsbau" (Ruprecht Building), built beginning in 1400 by Ruprecht III, the later German king, makes due with three-dimensional adornments consisting of two stone tablets and a keystone with a masterful Gothic sculpture.
The "Bibliotheksbau" (Library Building) and the "Frauenzimmerbau" (Ladies Building), housed in the "Königssaal" (King's Hall), complete the Gothic ensemble.
The Renaissance Period
During the Renaissance Heidelberg Palace experienced its greatest splendor. While grappling with classical antiquity, a gradual transition from medieval to modern forms of thought and representation emerged.
The glass "Saalbau" (Hall Building - 1549) marks the transition from the Gothic age to the Renaissance: arcades, a staircase tower and volute pediments indicate the changes in the architectural taste of the period. On the inside it was magnificently furnished, including a banquet hall sumptuously decorated with mirrors.
The most important Renaissance palace of the ensemble is the "Ottheinrichsbau" (Ottheinrich Building) (1556-1559). With this building Elector Otto Heinrich created a monument to himself. The pretentious facade concept was intended to reflect the urbaneness and refinement of the ruler.
In accordance with the antique example, the three floors of varying heights are divided into five fields each. In addition to major characters from the Old Testament, the concept of the figures in the center of the window field also include the five virtues, antique gods and goddesses and the names of the large planets. The portal above the perron rises up like an antique triumphal arch; it bears no titles of the ruler who commissioned it to be built.
Those who commissioned buildings to be built during the Renaissance period dispensed with giving the palace complex in Heidelberg a uniform appearance. Like a diamond solitaire, the "Ottheinrichsbau" sits poised above its surroundings from the Late Middle Ages.
Elector Friedrich IV also added his own palace, the "Friedrichsbau" (Friedrich Building), to the ensemble. Its facade is adorned with sixteen statues of princes - a stone gallery of ancestral portraits. It strictly obeyed the architectural theory of that age, which recommended different antique systems of decoration for different purposes, i.e. Tuscan columns for the church, Doric for the Elector's suite of rooms, Ionic for the Electress and Corinthian for the "Frauenzimmer" (Ladies Rooms).
The buildings of Friedrich V are among the most original built at the time in German princely courts. The "Englischer Bau" (English Building) fascinates with its for that time modern, clear forms based on those of the Italian Renaissance architect Palladio.