Bardejov's main square is a long, gently sloping rectangle lined with Gothic and Renaissance burgher houses, their tall gables painted in pastel colours, with the Gothic Basilica of St Giles at the top and the old town hall standing alone in the middle. The town grew rich in the Middle Ages on trade between Hungary and Poland, and its walls, bastions and moat largely survive. Bardejov was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2000, along with its Jewish suburb, with a synagogue and ritual bath from the eighteenth century, a reminder of the community that lived here until the Holocaust.
The basilica holds eleven Gothic winged altars, a remarkable collection, and the town hall, one of the first Renaissance buildings in Slovakia, houses a museum. In summer, the square fills with café terraces and the town feels lively but relaxed.
A few kilometres north, Bardejovské Kúpele is a spa town in a forested valley, with mineral springs, a colonnade, and an open-air museum of folk architecture, with wooden houses and churches brought from villages in the region. Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, stayed here in 1895, and a statue commemorates her visit.
The region around Bardejov is hilly and green, with wooden churches, forests and small villages, close to the Polish border. To the east, the Dukla pass was the scene of a terrible battle in 1944, when Soviet and Czechoslovak forces fought to break through German lines, with huge losses; a memorial and military museum at Svidník commemorate it. For riders, the roads are winding, with little traffic, and they cross into Poland toward the wooden churches of the Beskid Niski. Bardejov has fuel, shops and restaurants. Try bryndzové halušky, potato dumplings with sheep's cheese, and the local beer. Late spring and early autumn are lovely seasons here.