House at the Knight (Haus zum Ritter)

The House at the Knight (Haus zum Ritter, formally Haus zum Ritter St. Georg) stands at Hauptstraße 178 on the edge of the Marktplatz in Heidelberg's Old Town, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was built in 1592 for the Huguenot cloth merchant Charles Bélier, who had fled religious persecution in France and settled in the Calvinist Palatinate. The house is one of very few Old Town buildings to survive the French burning of Heidelberg in 1693, and it is widely regarded as the finest Renaissance burgher house in the city. Its sandstone facade is richly carved, with gables, pilasters, bands of ornament, sculpted heads and a statue of the knight St George slaying the dragon, which gives the house its name. Inscriptions and the decorated oriels show the wealth of the merchant class in the late 16th century. The building survived the wars because of its solid stone construction, while neighbouring timber-framed houses burned. Today it houses a hotel and restaurant and has served other functions over the centuries, including as an inn, and the ground floor may be entered for dining. Because the interior is in commercial use, the main interest for visitors is the exterior, which is open to view at all times. Restoration campaigns have repaired weathered sandstone and recoloured details, but the facade remains largely original. The house stands near the Heiliggeistkirche and the Marktplatz, so it is easy to include on a walking tour, and the pairing of its elaborate Renaissance front with the Baroque rebuilding around it shows what Heidelberg looked like before 1693.