Barrel Building

The Barrel Building dominates the courtyard of Heidelberg Castle with a copper-bound oak vat that stands seven meters high and holds over two hundred thousand liters of wine. Prince Elector Karl Theodor commissioned this massive vessel in seventeen fifty-one to store the local tithe of wine from the Palatinate region. A court dwarf named Perkeo stood guard over the cellar, famously drinking wine instead of water until his sudden death. The vat remains empty today, resting beneath the ruined royal chambers.