Selters brings together landscape features along the Nidder and a striking cultural landmark: floodplain and salt meadows, a cycling route through the district and the medieval Protestant parish church give your trip a variety of highlights. If you are looking for a holiday apartment in Selters, you can choose what to focus on according to your interests: are you mainly interested in trails and landscapes, architecture and local history, or a combination of both? The local attractions make it easy to distinguish between these options.
Nature trails, the Volcano Cycle Route and salt history
The Volcano Cycle Route passes through Selters, a district of Ortenberg, and offers a specific route for a cycling trip. Along the Salt Meadow Circular Trail, information boards explain the importance of agriculture and nature conservation, as well as inland salt meadows. Three circular trails explore the floodplain and salt meadows in the Middle Nidder Valley near Effolderbach and Selters. The boards focus on land use and conservation, while the three circular trails offer a different perspective on the landscape. The FFH site 5620-301 “Salt Meadows and Vineyard of Selters” lies along the Nidder between Konradsdorf, Selters and Wippenbach. Selters is also associated with salt-bearing springs and a history of extracting salt from brine. When choosing a theme, you can consider the salt meadows and this former activity as two different ways to explore local history: one as a natural landscape, the other as a trace of human use.
Church architecture and lapidarium
The Protestant parish church in Selters is the main cultural attraction. This medieval hall church has a three-sided chancel and a fortified west tower with an octagonal spire. It is a cultural monument for historical, artistic and scientific reasons. The technical terms describe different parts of the building: the three-sided chancel refers to the shape of the eastern end, while the octagonal spire describes the shape of the tower’s peak. This means you can appreciate the church not only for its medieval origins, but also for its specific features.
On the north wall of the church is a lapidarium containing elaborately decorated, partly well-preserved 18th-century tombstones. Here, medieval architecture and tombstones from a later period come together in one building. If you want to compare the building’s form and details, you can focus on two different things: the church’s design and the funerary art of the lapidarium.
A story of local development
The development of the NABU Information and Activity Centre in Selters, located in the salt meadows, also tells a story of local history. It grew out of an unused football pitch and clubhouse and was transformed into a nature conservation project between late 2017 and September 2019. This change of use adds a specific site transformation over a clearly defined period to the landscape themes. It is therefore a different historical focus from the medieval church and the 18th-century tombstones.
Another cultural highlight in Ortenberg
In the Ortenberg destination, the Lißberg Musical Instrument Museum displays more than 2,000 originals and replicas. It has the world’s largest collection of hurdy-gurdies and bagpipes. At a music table, you can try out instruments; cassettes or CDs provide an opportunity to listen to them as well. Alongside Selters’ church architecture and lapidarium, Ortenberg offers a distinct musical theme. These different highlights can help you decide whether to focus your trip more on nature, architecture and local history, or musical instruments.
Discover more destinations: Glauburg, Karben, Nidda, Büdingen, Bad Vilbel, Altenstadt, Ober-Mörlen, Echzell.
Return to the main travel overview: Wetterau.
