www.selestat-haut-konigsbourg.com. A thousand-year-old market town on the plain, Sélestat’s old town remains a diverting tightly-knit circle of medieval streets, half-timbered houses, towers and churches. There is the 13thC Tour de l’Horloge, the Tour des Sorcières with a chunk of the ancient ramparts, and the lovely Romanesque Eglise de Sainte-Foy.

Sélestat’s largest church is the Gothic Eglise de Saint-Georges, easily distinguished by its multi-coloured roof tiles. The interior contains a Renaissance choir and 15thC stained glass. The town’s real pièce de résistance is the famous Bibliothèque Humaniste which houses the library of Beatus Rhenatus (1485-1547), a friend of Erasmus and leading light in Sélestat’s influential humanist school. Illuminated manuscripts and rare tomes dating back to the 7thC are displayed alongside 15thC carvings and faïence.