Loit: Romanesque Village Church and Canoe Tour on the Loiter Au

Loit can be viewed from two different perspectives: as a village with a small Romanesque fieldstone church and as the starting point for an approximately five-hour canoe tour on the Loiter Au. The village also has historic buildings and lies within the Schlei Nature Park. If you are looking for a hotel in Loit, architectural history and an extended time on the water can offer different focal points for your stay. The places and routes below show what Loit and the surrounding natural area have to offer.

Loit Church and Historic Buildings

Loit Church is a small Romanesque fieldstone building dating from the late 12th century. Its irregular side walls have been preserved, and the grounds include a churchyard. Inside are Passion paintings, a late Gothic triumphal cross group and a granite baptismal font. There is also a wooden pulpit, considered the oldest in Angeln. Here, Romanesque architecture meets furnishings from different periods. The contrast between fieldstone architecture, paintings and works in wood and stone gives the church a clear cultural and historical focus.

The protected ensemble of Loit Church includes not only the church building and its furnishings, but also the churchyard, granite embankment walls and a ring of lime and elm trees. The church is considered significant in historical, artistic, urban-planning and landscape terms; the churchyard is classified as a garden monument. The walls and trees are therefore also part of the overall site. Those interested in architectural and monument history can explore both the individual building and its landscaped surroundings.

Another historic landmark is the residential building at Dorfstraße 22. It dates from 1756 and 1845 and was part of a former three-sided farmstead. This adds an example of an older farm layout to the area’s religious architectural history. The B201 is also useful for getting your bearings: it runs through Loit’s built-up area.

Schlei Nature Park and Canoe Tour

According to the 2023 nature park plan, Loit lies wholly or partly within the Schlei Nature Park. Covering around 52,000 hectares, it is the second-largest nature park in Schleswig-Holstein. Within the broader Schleswig-Flensburg travel destination, it is a large natural area characterized by gentle hills, forests, hedgerows, rapeseed and grain fields, sandy beaches and bathing coves. The Schlei’s brackish waters provide a habitat for numerous endangered bird species. You can explore the nature park on foot, by bike or on the water.

A canoe tour runs from Loit to Winningmay along the Loiter Au. The route is about 15 kilometres long and takes approximately five hours; along the way, it passes through an almost untouched landscape in the Schlei Nature Park. This makes it a water-based activity with named endpoints and a clear timeframe.

The Loit canoe launch site is an access point on the Loiter Au. Launching is easy at any water level. There is a large car park at the launch site, which you can also reach with a trailer. These details are useful for practical planning, while the distance and approximate duration give you an idea of the tour itself.

Walking Routes and the Wider Region

Another option in the nature park is the Nature Park Hiking Trail. It stretches for around 40 kilometres from Maasholm on the Baltic Sea to Fleckeby on the inner Schlei. Compared with the canoe tour, which is about 15 kilometres long, this is a considerably longer route; the modes of travel and endpoints also differ. You can weigh up a several-hour paddling trip against an extensive hiking trail without assuming they take the same amount of time.

The wider Schleswig-Flensburg travel destination also features other historical sites: Haithabu and the Danewerk have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since June 2018. More than 25 kilometres of the Danewerk rampart still remain today. In Idstedt, a historic memorial site and a museum explain the German-Danish history surrounding the uprising of 1848 and the Battle of Idstedt. These regional points of interest complement Loit’s own history with further aspects of the Schleswig-Flensburg travel destination.

Discover more destinations: Nottfeld, Ulsnis, Scheggerott, Steinfeld, Wagersrott, Mohrkirch, Stolk, Boren.

Return to the main travel overview: Süderbrarup.