Selketal-Stieg

To experience the Selke Valley on foot means to enjoy pure nature, admire varied landscapes and experience living 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 Selke's catchment area in the Harz is rich in history and allows the attentive hiker a comprehensive insight into past centuries. The Selke flows through the duchy of the "Anhaltiners". Here lies their ancestral castle, Anhalt Castle, now a ruin, as well as a former residence, Ballenstedt Castle, with its magnificent baroque garden and the burial place of Margrave Albrecht the Bear, the ancestor of the Ascanian dynasty and later Anhaltiners.

Mining was also carried out in this small duchy. Silver and even some gold were found, so coins could be minted here. Later, iron processing played a role, which was also carried out artistically in the form of iron casting. A state spa with a strong steel spring (Alexisbad) was to bring prosperity to the duchy in the 19th century. Later a narrow-gauge railway was built, which still exists today and offers tired hikers a comfortable alternative. On the Selke lies the place where more than 150 years ago technological history and, 800 years ago, German legal history were written.