Castle Hotel (Heidelberg)
The Schlosshotel in Heidelberg was a hotel from 1873 to 1964 with interruptions . Located in a characteristic location above the Hortus Palatinus of Heidelberg Castle , it was once one of the best houses on the square, accommodating numerous prominent guests. Even Empress Sissi , Richard Wagner and Mark Twain were guests here. After the end of the hotel business, the building served as the international study center of the University of Heidelberg until 2000 . Since 2009, a residential complex of apartment complexes has been built on the site of the building.
history
The castle hotel above the Scheffelterrasse opened in 1873. Right next to it stood the Hotel Bellevue in the east , which was not rebuilt after a fire in 1920. With the director's villa in the east, the development of the Schloß-Wolfsbrunnenweg begins , which stretches from the castle in an easterly direction to the Schlierbach district .
From 1930, the operating company got into financial difficulties. In the 1940s the hotel also served as a hotel management school. After the Second World War , the building remained confiscated by the US Army until 1956, after which the hotel was resumed. Despite its good location, the hotel with its 80 beds was not run economically successfully, so that hotel operations ended in 1964.
The building came to the state property office and was awarded to the University of Heidelberg , which set up an international study center in it. The building was parceled out into small residential units and numerous additional bathrooms were installed. From 2000 the building stood empty for several years.
In July 2007, the Heidelberg municipal council approved the project to convert it into an apartment complex, the outer structure of the hotel should be preserved. In the course of the renovation work, however, it turned out that the building was completely dilapidated, to which in particular its moisture penetration by the subsequently installed bathroom had contributed. The old structure was gradually torn down and renewed. Even the last remaining west facade of the hotel towards the castle and the city had to be demolished. The complete demolition of the old structure met with a lot of criticism from the population, although the cubature of the main building of the apartment complex still roughly corresponds to the former hotel building. To the east of the main building, where the hotel outbuildings were once located, two more modern apartment blocks were built, but their shape no longer refers to the earlier buildings.
Of the historic hotel complex, only the privately owned former director's villa, further east, remained.
literature
- Kurt de Swaaf: Postcard Idylle disturbed , in: Meier , October 2010, pp. 30–31.
- Hanna Wölki: Heidelberg Hotels in the late 19th Century - Schloss-Hotel and Hotel Bellevue: Series of publications by the Heidelberg City Archives. Special publication 19 . Regional culture publisher, Ubstadt-Weiher 2011, ISBN 978-3897357198 .
Web links
- Schloßhotel , Regional Council Stuttgart State Office for Monument Preservation
Coordinates: 49 ° 24 ′ 46.8 " N , 8 ° 43 ′ 10.5" E