Church of the Holy Spirit, Heidelberg

The Church of the Holy Spirit is the largest church in Heidelberg, Germany. The church, located in the marketplace in the old town center, was constructed between 1398 and 1515 in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. It receives 1–3 million guests annually, making it among the most visited churches in Germany. The church was planned as the burial place of the Electors of the Palatinate and as a representative church of the Palatinate royal seat. In the Palatine War of Succession, the princely graves of the Electors were destroyed; today only the grave of the founder of the church, Elector Ruprecht III, remains. The church was also the location of the founding of the Heidelberg University and was the original repository of the Bibliotheca Palatina. The congregation was originally Roman Catholic, but the church has changed denominations more than ten times through its history. Intermittently, over a 300-year period, the nave and the choir of the church were separated by a wall, allowing both Catholics and Protestants to practice in the church at the same time.