Heidelberg, located in southwestern Germany on the…

Heidelberg, located in southwestern Germany on the Neckar River, about fifty miles (eighty kilometers) south of Frankfurt am Main, is first mentioned in written sources in the twelfth century.

Modern Heidelberg can trace its beginnings to the village Bergheim (Mountain Home), which now lies in the middle of modern Heidelberg, mentioned in documents dated to 769.

The people had gradually converted to Christianity, and in 863, the monastery of St. Michael was founded on the Heiligenberg inside the double rampart of the Celtic fortress.

The Neuberg Monastery was founded around 1130 in the Neckar valley.

The bishopric of Worms extended its influence into the valley at the same time, in 1142 founding Schönau Abbey.

The first reference to Heidelberg can be found in a document in Schönau Abbey dated to 1196, which is considered the founding date for Heidelberg.

Heidelberg castle and its neighboring settlement in 1155 had been taken over by the house of Hohenstaufen.

Conrad of Hohenstaufen became Count Palatine of the Rhine (German: Pfalzgraf bei Rhein).

The Electorate of the Palatinate had passed in 1195 to the House of Welf through marriage.

Louis I, Duke of Bavaria, obtains the Palatinate in 1225, and thus the castle comes under his control; Heidelberg serves from this time as the new capital of the Palatinate.