Selmice – Elbe, Heritage Zone and Stud Farm History

Selmice is a place where the landscape, heritage conservation and the history of horse breeding can be explored from several specific perspectives. This creates a destination whose character is shaped not only by a single building, but also by its surroundings and the historical traces found throughout the village.

Between the Elbe and the Heritage Zone

Selmice is located on the right bank of the Elbe. The entire cadastral area of Selmice is part of the Kladrubské Polabí Heritage Zone. The cadastral area refers to the entire officially defined area of the village, not merely its built-up centre. This classification is particularly informative for your orientation: the protected heritage context thus encompasses the entire local area and brings together settlement, landscape and historical use within a shared framework.

The surroundings also make Selmice tangible as a distinctly rural place. They are partly wooded; otherwise, meadows and fields define the village. This combination provides the landscape setting for the village’s historical features, without reducing Selmice to a purely cultural sightseeing destination.

Františkov and Horse Breeding

One focus of the village’s history is the Františkov area. The Františkov stable complex was built between 1828 and 1831 to a design by Mauritz Jahn. The Františkov farm estate is part of Selmice. Here, you can therefore encounter both a historically dated stable complex and a farm estate that belongs to the village itself.

In Selmice, a 3.2 km-long tree-lined avenue leads to the farm estate’s gate. The Selmická Aleje is also directly connected with the traditional work of the National Stud Farm: it uses the avenue to bring foals to the Františkov rearing station in Selmice. The connection with horse breeding is therefore not only historical, but can also be understood through the traditional use of the avenue.

The stables in the Františkov area are currently used for raising young horses. These include one-year-old as well as two- and three-year-old horses. For your visit, this aspect offers a particularly concrete insight into the site’s continuing function: Františkov represents not only its past architectural history, but also a currently documented form of horse breeding.

Church and Traces of the Former Stud Farm

One of the notable buildings in Selmice is the Church of St Lawrence. It is an architecturally valuable Neo-Gothic building and creates a distinctive architectural accent within the village. Another historical trace bears the name Starý kštít. This is a remnant of the former Selmice stud farm. The church and Starý kštít thus point to different chapters in the village’s history: Neo-Gothic sacred architecture on the one hand and the former use as a stud farm on the other.

A Footbridge over the Elbe

In Selmice, a metal footbridge crosses the Elbe and continues to serve its purpose to this day. Its function is thus explicitly intended for crossing on foot. Together with its location on the right bank of the Elbe, it is one of the specific features through which Selmice can be understood spatially and in terms of its landscape.

For your further search, you can also consider Živanice, Choltice, Chvaletice, Srnojedy, Svinčany, Žáravice, Břehy and Horní Jelení.

For the broader travel overview: Pardubice District.