Heidelberg Tun
Encyclopedia
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
vat contained within the cellars of Heidelberg Castle
Heidelberg Castle
The Heidelberg Castle is a famous ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps....
. There have been four such barrels in the history of Heidelberg; the present one has a capacity of approximately 220,000 litres (58,100 U.S. gallons) and was made in 1751. One hundred and thirty oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
trees were reputedly used in its construction. It has only rarely been used as a wine barrel, and in fact presently enjoys more use as a tourist attraction, and also as a dance floor since one was constructed on top of the tun.
History
- Johann-Casimir-Fass (1591)
- Karl-Ludwig-Fass (1664)
- Karl-Philipp-Fass (1728)
- Karl-Theodor-Fass (1751)
When the French army captured the castle, the soldiers believed the empty wine barrel to be full of wine; their hatchet marks left on the barrel were later visible to tourists.
According to tradition and local legend, the eternal keeper of the enormous Tun remains Perkeo of Heidelberg
Perkeo of Heidelberg
Perkeo of Heidelberg was a notable court jester in 18th Century Heidelberg, Germany. He has since become an unofficial mascot of the city and region, as his name, story and image have been connected with a variety of festivals, traditional songs, cultural and scientific institutions, hotels,...
, once a court jester and master of the castle’s spirit production (and a famously Herculean wine drinker).
The barrel in literature
The Tun is referenced in Rudolf Erich RaspeRudolf Erich Raspe
Rudolf Erich Raspe was a German librarian, writer and scientist, called by his biographer John Carswell a "rogue"...
's The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen,
Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's novel Five Weeks in a Balloon
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen is an adventure novel by Jules Verne.It is the first Verne novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a plot full of adventure and twists that hold the reader's interest with...
, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables
Les Misérables
Les Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...
, Washington Irving
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
's The Specter Bridegroom, Mary Hazelton Wade's Bertha and Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
's A Tramp Abroad
A Tramp Abroad
A Tramp Abroad is a work of non-fiction travel literature by American author Mark Twain, published in 1880. The book details a journey by the author, with his friend Harris , through central and southern Europe...
. It can also be found in Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
's Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...
as well as in Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
, later used in the song cycle Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe, 'The Poet's Love' , is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann . The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, composed 1822–1823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert , those of...
by Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
for the final song "Die alten, bösen Lieder (The old evil songs)".
Anton Praetorius
Anton Praetorius
Anton Praetorius was a German Calvinist pastor who spoke out against the persecution of witches and against torture.-Life and writings :...
, the first Calvinistic pastor of the parochy of the wine-producing community of Dittelsheim, visited nearby Heidelberg, the centre of Calvin's theology in Germany. Impressed by the immensity of the Johann-Casimir-Fass, he wrote a poem in 1595 praising the barrel as an apparent proof of the superiority of Calvinism, entitled Vas Heidelbergense (Poem on the Great Wine Barrel in the Castle of Heidelberg).
Further reading
- Vas Heidelbergense, Heidelberg, October 1595 (Poem about the 1. Great Wine Barrel in the Castle of Heidelberg. Only one remaining print, translated into German by Burghard Schmanck)
- Stefan Wiltschko, The Big Vat, Heidelberg, 2002 (also available in French, Japanese, Spanish, German)
- Cser, Andreas and Stefan Wiltschko: Das Große Fass im Schloss Heidelberg, Neckargemünd-Dilsberg, 1999
- Das grosse Fass zu Heidelberg ein unbekanntes Kapitel kurpfälzischer Kunstgeschichte, July Sjöberg, editor, Neckargemünd-Dilsberg, 2004
- Hartmut Hegeler und Stefan Wiltschko: Anton Praetorius und das 1. Große Fass von Heidelberg (the 1st Great Wine Barrel in the Castle of Heidelberg) Unna, 2003 ISBN 3-9808969-0-0