GIANT WINE BARREL OF HEIDELBERG CASTLE
Perkeo and the Biggest Tun
It
is legendary, appearing in fantastic fiction and history, refenced in
the writing of Jules Verne, Victor Hugo and Mark Twain (see Mark
Twain Heidelberg Mystery), and that notorious fictional
teller of outsized tales, Baron Munchausen - the giant wine barrel of
Heidelberg Castle. In the days
of the royal princes of the Palatine taxes were often paid in goods rather
than gold and the wine growing vineyards which line the valleys of the
Neckar River and the Rhineland produced lots of wine, so each year, a portion
of the crop was due to the prince. But where to put it all? There have
been a few barrels under the foundations of the castle of Heidelberg but
the present Heidelberg Tun, sometimes called the “largest wine barrel
in the world” was built in 1751 by the Prince Elector Karl Theodor.
It is 23 feet high and 27 feet wide capable of holding 55,000 gallons of
wine, though has been dry for a few centuries and reportedly took 30 oak
trees to construct.
Wine Barrel Competition
Big
wine barrels were common in the old days with many towns and villages
having one. The giant wine barrel of Heidelberg is also a symbol of royal
envy and the changing history of Heidelberg. The first big barrel at
Heidelberg
was built in 1591, but in a regional rivalry, Duke Ludwig of Wurttemberg
had a bigger one built to boast of largest wine barrel, still found at
the amazing Ludwigsburg Palace near Stuttgart (see Ludwigsburg
Palace),
but Karl Theodor, actually of Bavaria, responsible for reconstruction of
castle after the ravages of the Palatine War of Succession wasn’t
to be outshone and ordered the larger barrel. Heidelberg changed hands
from the Palatine to Baden-Wurttemberg in 1803 and it remained the biggest
wine barrel for a couple of hundred years until an entrepreneur barrel
maker in the 1930s who thought the Palatine should regain the wine size
crown built an even bigger
barrel
in Bad Dürkheim,
though it never actually held wine and is now a restaurant (see Durkheimer
Fass).
Perkeo Legend
The
wine barrel of Heidelberg is associated with the legend of Perkeo whose
colorful image can be seen perched on the wall across from it, forever
on guard and adorning the signs of a number of drinking establishments
in the old city as the unofficial mascot of the region. Perkeo was a dwarf
from the Austrian-Italian Tyrol brought by Prince Karl Phillip to Heidelberg
in 1720 to serve as court jester. His common nickname reportedly came from
his answering “why not” in Italian whenever asked if he’d
like another glass of wine. He was given mastery of the castle wine stocks
and lived to a ripe old age of 80, legendarily only drinking wine, until
he became ill. A doctor gave him a glass of water to drink and he died
the following day.
The
wine barrel is cramped into the stone foundations of the castle, climbed
by wooden ladders to the top, which has been used as a dance floor upon
occasion. There are ax marks on the dark wooden staves, supposedly from
the French soldiers who occupied Heidelberg, expecting to slake their thirst
only to find it empty. Step outside the castle to the terrace overlooking
the city below, on the west corner of the castle look for the gargoyle
head in the shape of a lion. In other castles these openings
were used for defense, pouring boiling oil or water, but at Heidelberg
its
actually
an overflow outlet from the wine barrel inside.
Visiting the Wine Barrel of Heidelberg
The wine barrel is included with admission to the Heidelberg Castle (see Heidelberg Castle) as well as the fascinating apothecary museum across the courtyard (Pharmacy Museum of Heidelberg). The castle is reached by a funicular from the old town. There is a wine tasting bar refreshment stand in the Barrel Cellar open from 10am to 5pm daily. © Bargain Travel Europe
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See Also:
HEIDELBERG STUDENT PRISON AND MUSEUM
PHILOSOPHERS WALK - A POETS VIEW
SLEEPING IN A BLACK FOREST WINE BARREL
NECKAR RIVER CRUISES FROM HEIDELBERG
