Selketal Trail

Short Description

On the Selketal Trail, you experience nature and culture at its best on a beautiful route through the Lower Harz region. Passing by Burg Falkenstein, it leads to the UNESCO World Heritage town of Quedlinburg.

Description

Experiencing the Selketal on foot means enjoying pure nature, admiring diverse landscapes, and discovering vibrant history.

Bremke, Wormke, or Romke are typical Harz water names. The Selke is the largest stream of this name family. In fact, it is already a river. The catchment area of the Selke in the Harz region is historically significant and offers attentive hikers a comprehensive insight into past centuries. The Selke flows through the territory of the Anhaltiners. Here lies their ancestral castle, Burg Anhalt, now a ruin, as well as a former residence, Schloss Ballenstedt, with its magnificent Baroque garden and the burial place of Margrave Albert the Bear, the progenitor of the Ascanians and later Anhaltiners.

Mining was also carried out in this small duchy. Silver and even some gold were found, allowing coins to be minted here. Later, iron processing played a role, which was also carried out with artistic ambition in the form of iron casting. A state spa with a strong steel spring (Alexisbad) was intended to bring prosperity to the duchy in the 19th century. Later, a narrow-gauge railway was established, which is still in operation today, offering tired hikers a comfortable alternative. At the Selke, there is the place where over 150 years ago, a piece of technology history and the site where German legal history was written 800 years ago.

Route Description

The starting point is the Stiege train station at the smallest loop of a narrow-gauge railway, the Selketalbahn, at about 485 m above sea level. From here, the route follows the Selke and the Selketalbahn, passing by Albrechtshaus, a former sanatorium built around 1900. From the Friedrichshöhe stop, the tracks of the Selketalbahn accompany us through the Upper Selketal nature reserve to the Mühlteich (mountain lake) in Güntersberge. To the right, on Kohlberg, lie the remains of the so-called Güntersburg, one of the largest in the Harz at 3.1 ha. At the exit of the village, the Selketal Trail switches to the northern side of the Selke and the Selketalbahn, following the river to Straßberg Station. Here, the current visitor mine Grube Glasebach extracted fluorite until 1989. Without this fluorite deposit, the Selketalbahn would no longer exist. On the way to Silberhütte Station, we pass by the Unterharzer Waldhof - an information and experience area about the forest - a good spot for a rest.
Just before Silberhütte Station, the trail ascends to the 400 m high Mühlenköpfe to Kunst- und Naturhof Hänichen. The path now descends towards Alexisbad, founded in 1810 near a strong steel spring and the first spa town in Anhalt. We bypass the town, cross the Selke on the Schwefelbrücke, walk alongside the Selketalbahn to Bundesstraße 242 but do not cross it, instead, we ascend in several switchbacks to Habichtstein. At the top, we reach the Klippenweg, which leads to the left through the designed park landscape of Alexis-Bad, almost flat and comfortably along the rocky slope of the Selke. It connects the Habichtstein rock with the Schalkenburg rock and the Mägdetrappe rock. The Selketal Trail descends to the former smelting village of Mägdesprung with the Carlswerk industrial museum - a still visitable machine factory. Behind Carlswerk Mägdesprung, a bridge crosses the Selke. From here, we hike downstream along the southern bank of the Selke. The valley now widens and offers a unique flora and fauna in the nature reserve over a length of 8 km. The route is free from any motor vehicle traffic and equipped with idyllic resting places. The next destination is Burg Falkenstein, the best-preserved medieval castle in the Harz. To reach the castle, one must leave the Selketal Trail about 300 m after Hotel Thalmühle on the right and hike up to the castle on the Eselstieg path. The Selketal Trail continues along the northern bank of the Selke to Meisdorf (town of Falkenstein).
After passing the nature trail along the Selke, we arrive at Schloss Meisdorf hotel complex, leave the Selke behind, and turn west towards Ballenstedt. A break is recommended at Schlosspark Ballenstedt to experience the park laid out in Italian style with water features by the royal Prussian garden director Lenné.
Upon exiting the park, the Selketal Trail follows the Fürstenweg path, passing by Roseburg, with its equally beautiful landscaped park. We hike along the edge of the Harz towards Gernrode with views of the Harz foothills. The trail crosses the Selketalbahn at Osterteich. Gernrode is circumvented via Schwesternweg and Herrenbergsweg.
It is not enough to just look down at St. Cyriakus collegiate church from here. The more than 1000-year-old church is one of the oldest in Northern Europe and the only almost unchanged building from the Ottonian era. Miraculously, an extraordinary stuccoed room in the churchs southern aisle has survived through the ages, the oldest reproduction of Christs tomb in Germany.
The Panoramaweg leads us to Bad Suderode. We traverse it in a northerly direction, cross the Selketalbahn line between Gernrode and Quedlinburg, pass by the first Bückemühle west of the Quarmbach stream towards Quarmbeck. The trail leads to the Quarmbach settlement parallel to the Selketalbahn. Crossing the Bode on Schafbrücke, we reach the UNESCO World Heritage town of Quedlinburg through Brühlpark, a landscaped garden expanded in English style. Via Brühlstraße and Wordgarten, we reach the end of the Selketal Trail at Carl-Ritter-Straße.

More Information

https://www.harzinfo.de/erlebnisse/tour/selketal-stieg

https://www.dasselketal.de/

Directions

To Stiege via B242 between Harzgerode and Braunlage

Parking Information

Ample parking available at HSB Stiege train station and in all villages