Selfkant: Pilgrimage History and Landscape

Selfkant brings together sacred architecture, distinctive landscape features and a range of ways to explore the surrounding area. To help plan your trip, you’ll find individual historic sites as well as a longer cycling route and digital tours. Local highlights include a chapel and churches, a viewpoint and a preserved type of path.

Sacred Buildings and Art in Selfkant

The chapel in Isenbruch is dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin. Dating from the 15th to 16th century, it is a Gothic building made of marlstone. A pilgrimage site developed in Millen as early as 1126, thanks to the relics of Saint Quirinus. Together, these two places represent different aspects of history: the architectural history of a chapel and an early pilgrimage tradition.

You can find a specific work of art in Tüddern: St. Gertrude’s Church houses a wooden sculpture of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child by Jan van Stevenswert, dated 1513. In Hillensberg, St. Michael’s Church is considered one of the region’s oldest sacred buildings. Together, these examples offer a starting point for exploring Selfkant’s religious architectural and art history, without limiting you to a single period.

Schlouner Berg and the Landscape

At 100.4 metres, Schlouner Berg in Hillensberg is the only mountain in Selfkant. From here, you can enjoy good views towards the Netherlands and across the Maas Valley. Hillensberg is also home to a sunken lane in its original form, which leads to Schlouner Berg. The viewpoint and the lane are two distinct landscape features: one offers views across the surrounding area, while the other is a preserved type of path leading up to the mountain.

Cycling Route and Digital Tours

The approximately 36-kilometre cycling route “De geluksplekjesroute Selfkant” (“Selfkant Route of Lucky Places”) passes through an idyllic landscape of picturesque streams, wild nature and woodland. It passes all ten lucky places in the municipality of Selfkant. The tour brings together its approximate length and the connection between the landscape and the lucky places. Check the current route before setting off.

On the “Route voller Wunder” (“Route Full of Wonders”), visitors can use a 360-degree tour and/or an audio tour on their own smartphone at two attractions in Selfkant. This digital format differs from the cycling route: here, a panoramic view or audio accompanies visits to two attractions. As the availability of digital services may change, it is advisable to check before your visit.

More to Explore in the Wider Heinsberg Destination

The wider Heinsberg destination also offers cultural and landscape attractions. Teverener Heide is a 450-hectare nature reserve featuring open heathland, marshy bogs, quiet lakes, inland dunes and woodland. Four circular hiking trails offer different distances: the Moor Circular Trail is 5.8 kilometres long, the Heath Circular Trail 6 kilometres, the Lake Circular Trail 7.1 kilometres and the Grand Circular Trail 9.4 kilometres. Trailheads are located at designated car parks in Scherpenseel, Grotenrath and Hohenbusch. Check current trail conditions before setting out.

For art history in the wider Heinsberg destination, visit BEGAS HAUS in the town of Heinsberg, where visitors can learn about four generations of the Begas artist dynasty. The collection is displayed in a historic complex of buildings dating from the 16th to 18th century. Schacht 3 in Hückelhoven offers a different historical focus. There, visitors can go underground to learn how hard coal was mined at the former “Sophia-Jacoba” mine until 1997.

The Meinweg area is a landscape of woodland, heathland and bogs that connects the Heinsberg and Viersen districts in North Rhine-Westphalia with the Dutch province of Limburg. In this area, the National Park region offers circular hiking trails of varying difficulty and lengths from 5 to 13 kilometres. Themed examples include mill walks, the Smugglers’ Route and town walks. In the wider Heinsberg destination, you can choose between landscapes, cultural and industrial history, and hiking trails of different lengths.

Discover more destinations: Holzweiler, Geilenkirchen, Tüddern, Übach-Palenberg, Hückelhoven, Erkelenz, Wegberg, Heinsberg.

Back to the main travel overview: Heinsberg.