Vladimir Suzdal Heritage Run

The core Golden Ring pairing, with monumental stops and open rural roads.

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Why this ride

The core Golden Ring pairing, with monumental stops and open rural roads. The road: M7 and regional roads. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Moscow start

   Moscow does not do small. It has more than ten million people, a ring road, the MKAD, that encloses a space bigger than many countries' capitals, and a centre that is arranged in concentric circles like the rings of a tree. At the middle is the Kremlin, the red-brick fortress on the Moskva river, with its golden-domed cathedrals and its walls, and beside it Red Square, with the colourful domes of St Basil's. The city was first mentioned in the chronicles in 1147, and grew from a modest wooden stockade into the capital of a vast empire.

   To ride in Moscow is to be reminded of its scale. The Garden Ring and the Third Ring carry huge flows of traffic, drivers are fast and aggressive, and motorcycles filter between lanes at speed. The best time to explore on two wheels is a summer evening, when the light lasts until late, the traffic eases, and the bridges over the river are lit. The skyscrapers known as the Seven Sisters, built under Stalin, rise from the skyline, and from Sparrow Hills, the high ground near the university, you can see the whole city spread out in a haze. The metro stations, designed as underground palaces, are worth leaving the bike for.

   From the city, a favourite day trip leads north-east to Sergiev Posad, about seventy kilometres away, where the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, the most important Russian Orthodox monastery, stands inside white walls with blue and gold domes. The road passes through forest and farmland, and pilgrims fill the monastery on holidays. It is a good outing for a long day, with plenty of cafes in the town and stalls selling painted wooden toys, a local craft.

   Fuel is found everywhere in the city and along the main roads, and the cafes range from cheap canteens to fancy restaurants. Summers are warm and can be thunderous, while winters are long, dark and very cold, with snow from November to March. Before planning any trip, check the current travel and entry conditions carefully, as they change often and can affect insurance, border crossings and the practicality of riding in Russia.

2. Malaya Dubna stop
3. Vladimir stop

   Vladimir was the capital of northeastern Russia in the twelfth century, long before Moscow mattered, and its main monuments are still the ones its princes built. It sits on a ridge above the Klyazma river, about two hundred kilometres east of Moscow, and today it is a city of over three hundred thousand with a quiet historic core and ordinary suburbs. Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky moved the centre of power here in the 1150s, and his successors poured their wealth into white limestone churches that are among the finest in the country.

   The Assumption Cathedral, finished in 1160 and expanded later, stands on the edge of the ridge, its gold dome visible from far down the valley, and inside are frescoes by Andrei Rublev, the great icon painter, from the early fifteenth century. The Golden Gate, a defensive tower and gateway built in 1164, still stands in the middle of the town with a small church in its upper level. The nearby Cathedral of St Demetrius is covered in intricate carvings of animals, saints and plants in pale stone. Together with the churches of Suzdal and the little Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, these buildings form a UNESCO World Heritage listing.

   The Intercession on the Nerl, at Bogolyubovo, a short ride from town, is a small white church standing by a meadow that floods in spring, so that it seems to float. It was built in 1165 and is often described as one of the most perfect small buildings in Russia. The walk across the fields to reach it is a pleasant one, particularly in early morning when mist hangs over the water.

   For riders, the roads around Vladimir are gentle and unhurried, with long straight stretches between villages, farmland and birch woods. The M7 highway from Moscow is fast and busy with trucks, and the older roads give a better sense of the country, though surfaces can be rough, particularly after winter. Suzdal, to the north, and Murom, to the east, have a quiet charm, and the Oka river, one of the great rivers of central Russia, is worth seeing.

   Vladimir has plenty of fuel, food and repairs, and the nearby towns of Kommunar and Bogolyubovo have a few services. Summer is warm and green, autumn golden, and winter cold and snowy, and honey, pickles and pies are good to try at local cafes.

4. Bogolyubovo stop

   Bogolyubovo is a small village on the River Klyazma, about ten kilometres east of Vladimir, and it carries one of the most beautiful small buildings in Russia. The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, built in 1165, stands alone in a flood meadow where the little Nerl River meets the Klyazma, a slender, white limestone church with a single dome, rising above the water on a raised mound. The walls are carved with figures, lions and delicate arcading, and the proportions are so perfect that the building seems to float. In spring, when the meadow floods, it is reflected in the water.

   It was built by Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, who moved the political centre of northern Russia from Kiev to Vladimir and made his residence here, in a fortified palace at Bogolyubovo, from which the village takes its name. Tradition says that he raised the church in memory of his son, who died in battle. In 1174, Andrei was murdered in his palace by conspirators from among his own boyars, and the stairway tower where the murder occurred still survives as part of the later monastery. The Bogolyubsky Monastery next door, with its white walls and green domes, was founded on the site of the old palace.

   Together with the white-stone monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal, the church is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is a place of peace. To reach it from the road, you walk for about a kilometre across the meadow along a path through tall grass, with wildflowers in early summer and the smell of damp earth and hay. In the evening, the light is golden and the church glows, and in winter the snow gives it a stark, quiet look. Swallows nest in the eaves.

   The village is small, so fuel and services are best found in Vladimir, a city of over three hundred thousand people, ten kilometres away, with stations, restaurants and hotels. The road from there is flat and easy, with the old highway running along the river, and traffic is moderate. Parking at the meadow is simple, but the path can be muddy after rain, so bring sensible boots. Mosquitoes can be annoying in summer. A bowl of hot soup and tea in a local cafe makes a good end to the visit.

5. Suzdal finish

   Suzdal is a small town on the Kamenka river, in the Russian heartland north-east of Moscow, and it is a place where the Russia of old churches and wooden houses survives almost whole. With a population of about eleven thousand, it has more than two dozen churches, five monasteries and a kremlin, all packed into a few square kilometres of low green meadows and willow-lined streams, and no factory chimney or tower block disturbs the skyline. The town was first mentioned in a chronicle of 1024, and for a time in the twelfth century it was the capital of the principality, until power shifted to Vladimir and later Moscow, leaving Suzdal a quiet backwater. That is exactly why it survived intact.

   The buildings are the draw. The Kremlin, a walled enclosure on a bend of the river, has the Nativity Cathedral, with blue domes dotted with gold stars and portals decorated in white stone carving from the thirteenth century. The Monastery of Saint Euthymius, which doubled as a prison for political prisoners under the Tsars, has high fortress walls and a bell tower that rings at noon. The Pokrovsky Convent, founded in the fourteenth century, was the place where Tsars sent unwanted wives. Together with the monuments of nearby Vladimir, the town has been on the UNESCO list since 1992. There is also an open-air museum of wooden architecture, with windmills and log churches moved here from surrounding villages, which is delightful in winter under snow.

   The local food and drink are an attraction in themselves. Suzdal is famous for its pickled cucumbers, celebrated in an annual festival, and for medovukha, a honey mead often served warm, along with horseradish and the thick sour cream of the region. Fresh bread and honey are sold in the market, and little restaurants serve hearty soups and dumplings.

   For riders, the roads around Suzdal are gentle, passing through flat farmland, birch and pine woods and villages with carved wooden window frames. The surface can be patchy, with potholes after winter, and the old road to Vladimir, about thirty-five kilometres away, is busy with lorries. Early summer and early autumn are the best seasons, with long light and the smell of hay or woodsmoke. Fuel is available in Suzdal and in Vladimir, which is the larger city, and it is wise to check the current situation for travel and fuel before planning a trip.

Where this sits

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