Alte Universität

The Alte Universitat dominates the square with its three story sandstone facade and a tall, central clock tower crowned by a sharp, dark spire. Elector Ruprecht the First founded Heidelberg University in thirteen eighty-six, but this specific building arrived much later, between seventeen eleven and seventeen thirty-five. It replaced the dilapidated older structures of the university. During the university's five hundredth anniversary in eighteen eighty-six, the student body held a massive torchlight procession that ended right here, illuminating the entire facade in a flickering orange glow.