Universitätsbibliothek (University Library)

The university library, also known as the "uni-bib" was built over 100 years ago and has been growing ever since. It started out with only 600,000 books and now it has over 10 million books and is growing rapidly. The building was modeled after the Heidelberg Castle, and has been enlarged several times to create more space. During the 16th Century, the Bibliotheca Palantina was greatly valued by scholars in all of Germany. The library was founded by elector Ottheinrich, which included several book collections of his own, and eventually the library grew and surrounding countries would donate or sell their collections to the Bibliotheca Palantina. Devastatingly, in 1622, during the Thirty Years War, a majority of the archive was stolen when the Catholic league conquered Heidelberg, and it was brought to the Vatican in Rome. A few books and manuscripts are all that remain of the collection, and these can be found at the University Museum.