The oldest documented references to Heidelberg Castle are found during the 1600s: All of these works are for the most part superficial and do not contain much information.

In 1615, Merian's Topographia Palatinatus Rheni described Prince Elector Ludwig V as he "started building a new castle one hundred and more years ago".

When Ruprecht became the King of Germany in 1401, the castle was so small that on his return from his coronation, he had to camp out in the Augustinians' monastery, on the site of today's University Square.

Circa 1300, the time of its founding, it starts with a Thebes analogy; in Count Rudolf and Emperor Ludwig, these degenerate brothers, it has its Eteocles and its Polynices [warring sons of Oedipus].

He was shown around by Louis's younger brother, Wolfgang, Count Palatine, and in a letter to his friend George Spalatin praises the castle's beauty and its defenses.

In 1619, Bohemian Protestant estates rebelling against the Emperor offered the crown of Bohemia to Frederick V, Elector Palatine who accepted despite misgivings and in doing so triggered the outbreak of the Thirty Years War.

In 1697 the Treaty of Ryswick was signed, marking the end of the War of the Grand Alliance and finally bringing peace to the town.

At the same time, Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine played with the idea of completely redesigning the castle, but shelved the project due to lack of funds.

When on 12 April 1720, Charles announced the removal of the court and all its administrative bodies to Mannheim, he wished that "Grass may grow on her streets".

However, on 24 June 1764, lightning struck the Saalbau (court building) twice in a row, again setting the castle on fire, which he regarded as a sign from heaven and changed his plans.

On 23 June 1764, the day before Karl Theodor was to move into the castle and make it his seat (which, by the bye, would have been a great disaster, for if Karl Theodor had spent his thirty years there, these austere ruins which we today so admire would certainly have been decorated in the pompadour style); on this day, then, with the prince's furnishings already arrived and waiting in the Church of the Holy Spirit, fire from heaven hit the octagonal tower, set light to the roof, and destroyed this five-hundred-year-old castle in very few hours.In the following decades, basic repairs were made, but Heidelberg Castle remained essentially a ruin.

He and his fellow Romantic painters were not interested in faithful portrayals of the building and gave artistic licence free rein.

He fought the government of Baden, which viewed the castle as an "old ruin with a multitude of tasteless, crumbling ornaments", for the preservation of the building.

Long before the origin of historic preservation in Germany, he was the first person to take an interest in the conservation and documentation of the castle, which may never have occurred to any of the Romantics.

In 1868, the poet Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter argued for a complete reconstruction, leading to a strong backlash in public meetings and in the press.

Mark Twain, the American author, described the Heidelberg Castle in his 1880 travel book A Tramp Abroad: A ruin must be rightly situated, to be effective.

Then all it lacked was a fitting drapery, and Nature has furnished that; she has robed the rugged mass in flowers and verdure, and made it a charm to the eye.

The standing half exposes its arched and cavernous rooms to you, like open, toothless mouths; there, too, the vines and flowers have done their work of grace.

The rear portion of the tower has not been neglected, either, but is clothed with a clinging garment of polished ivy which hides the wounds and stains of time.

Near the view from the Stück-garden over the deer moat (Hirschgraben) of the well-kept ruins of the castle interior, he asks himself whether one should not redevelop the whole area again.

But it would take the unique phenomenon to Heidelberg that the castle in its ruinous condition has to register a considerable profit at aesthetic values.

A rebuilt castle would equal a disenchantment, would be certification of an inadequate displacement process of history opposite, and granted to participating nature no more clearance.

[7]Timeline of events for Heidelberg Castle: Frederick V, Elector Palatine married the English king's daughter Elizabeth Stuart.

After 1619, Frederick V—against the expressed advice of many counsellors—was chosen as the Bohemian king, he could not maintain the crown after he lost at the Battle of White Mountain (Bílá hora) (height 379m/1243 ft) against the troops of the Emperor and the Catholic League.

After his escape to Rhenen in the Netherlands, Emperor Ferdinand II in 1621 put the imperial ban on Friedrich (Prince Electors).

Liselotte wrote in a letter to her aunt Sophia in Hanover: Even after thirty-six years in France, she still thought of Heidelberg as her home, and wrote in a letter to Marie Luise von Degenfeld: The House of Orléans is descended from the children of Liselotte and Philipp, which came to the French throne in 1830 in the person of Louis-Philippe of France.

Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine loved to play with his children in the town of Heidelberg and to go for walks along the slopes of the hills of the Odenwald.

Liselotte, who later described herself as a "lunatic bee" (German: "dolle Hummel"), rode her horse at a gallop over the hills round Heidelberg and enjoyed her freedom.

In 1717, looking back on her childhood in Heidelberg, she wrote: My God, how often at five in the morning I stuffed myself with cherries and a good piece of bread on the hill!

He applied in 1810 to Karlsruhe, in order to begin training with the Hofkupferstecher of Baden, Christian Haldenwang, who was a friend and neighbour of Graimberg's brother Louis.