CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
445 km from Mostar to Mostar, about 8 h 30 of riding. On the way it passes Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, Radimlja, Bijača and Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Bosnia Mostar to Sarajevo Mountain Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The bridge defines Mostar, and the bridge was rebuilt. The Stari Most, the Old Bridge, was designed by the Ottoman architect Hayreddin and finished in 1566, a single high arch of pale stone crossing the green Neretva. The town takes its name from the bridge keepers, the mostari, who watched it. For more than four centuries it stood, until in November 1993, during the Bosnian war, it was destroyed by shelling and fell into the river. A faithful reconstruction opened in 2004, using local stone and traditional methods, and the old town around it is now listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Mostar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mostar is where the day begins. Next is Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards.
Radimlja, just outside Stolac in Herzegovina, is the finest of the stećak graveyards, and it lies right beside the main road, which makes it one of the easiest pieces of medieval Europe to stop for. Stećci are massive limestone tombstones, shaped like chests, slabs or little gabled houses, carved between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries across the medieval kingdom of Bosnia and neighbouring lands. Many are decorated with reliefs: spirals, vines, crescents, stars, hunting scenes, dancers holding hands, and knights with swords and shields, and one figure at Radimlja raises an oversized right hand in what may be a greeting or a blessing. In 2016 UNESCO listed a group of these graveyards across four countries together.
Read the complete Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Radimlja.
Above the Bregava river valley, a few kilometres from Stolac in Herzegovina, a hillside is covered with huge stone slabs that look like sarcophagi and tilting boxes. These are stećci, medieval tombstones that were carved in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Radimlja is the best known cemetery of them. Over a hundred of them stand here, and several carry reliefs of exceptional quality, showing hunting scenes, riders with spears, dancing in a circle, stylised crescent moons, spirals and vines. In 2016 UNESCO listed a group of these sites together.
Read the complete Radimlja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Radimlja. Next is Bijača.
In western Herzegovina, near the town of Ljubuški and close to the Croatian border, the land is a mix of karst hills, fertile valleys and vineyards, baked by the sun and scented with sage and fig. Near the village of Bijača, the necropolis of stećci, the medieval tombstones that are unique to this region, is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of stećci, spread across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The tombstones, carved with crosses, spirals, figures and inscriptions, stand among the grass and stones, a silent reminder of the people who lived here centuries ago.
Read the complete Bijača write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bijača, about halfway. Next is Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup.
The Greek hillock, Grčka glavica, is a misleading name: the medieval tombstones that crown it have nothing to do with Greece. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, folk tradition often credited the stećci, the great carved medieval tombstones of the region, to Greeks, giants or other mysterious ancestors, and the names have stuck. The necropolis near the village of Biskup, in the hills south of Konjic, is a group of these stones, some decorated with reliefs of crosses, rosettes, hunting scenes or figures, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of stećci medieval tombstone graveyards, listed in 2016.
Read the complete Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup sits at 156 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bijača.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bijača write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bijača comes up about 375 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Radimlja.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Radimlja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 413 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Radimlja. Next is back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, late in the day. Next is Mostar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mostar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 445 km.
Mostar → Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Radimlja → Bijača is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bijača → Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup is 148 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup → back through Bijača is 153 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bijača → back through Radimlja is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards → Mostar is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.