View larger size  Palais Morass Just a few steps to the west is a still largely intact Baroque villa, the Palais Morass. The lawyer Johann Philipp Morass, who also served as the university’s rector in 1700/01, had it built where a hostel for the poor, the so-called Hardship Hostel, had stood until 1693. A real eye-catcher is the protruding portal with rounded arch and flanking columns. From the passageway to the courtyard, a Baroque staircase leads to the upper floors. The banquet hall on the first upstairs story is spectacular, having been redone in Louis Seize style in 1778. Since 1906 the Palais Morass has housed the Kurpfälzisches Museum, which contains the city’s art collections. Among its highlights is the Twelve Messenger Altar from Windsheim by Tilman Riemenschneider. Passing through the idyllic garden behind the museum, you come to a modern annex that is home to the Heidelberg Art Society.