Mannheim’s most famous sight is the mustard-yellow-and-red sandstone Schloss, Germany’s largest baroque palace. Now occupied by the University of Mannheim, the 450m-long structure was built over the course of 40 years in the mid-1700s but was almost completely destroyed during WWII.
Off the main courtyard are the Schloss Museum and baroque Schlosskirche .
In the Schloss Museum, you can see the impressively rococo Kabinettsbibliothek , saved from wartime destruction thanks to having been stored off-site, and several go-for-baroque halls – each a feast of stucco, marble, porcelain and chandeliers – rebuilt after the war.
The Schlosskirche was constructed between 1720 and 1731, and was rebuilt after the war. Mozart performed here in 1777. It belongs to the Alt-Katholiken (Old Catholics), a movement that split with Rome over papal infallibility in the 1870s and is now part of the Anglican Communion.
