CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 452 km round trip from Alba Iulia - roughly 15 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Capâlna, Comărnicel I, Voineasa - Crac-Găuri and Monastery of Horezu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 38 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Alba Iulia wears its history in layers, and the bottom layer is Roman. The Legio XIII Gemina, the legion that held the heart of Dacia, was based here for over a century and a half, and around its fortress grew Apulum, one of the largest cities of the province. Excavations inside the modern citadel have revealed parts of the legionary fortress, and a Roman house, a domus, with its foundations, rooms and heating system, has been uncovered nearby, showing how the wealthier inhabitants lived. Together with the rest of the Dacian limes, these remains are now on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 is where the day begins. Next is Capâlna.
The Dacians liked their fortresses high, hidden and hard to reach, which is why the Roman legions of Trajan took two bloody wars at the start of the second century to conquer them. Căpâlna stands on a steep wooded hill above the Sebeș valley, a Dacian citadel with stone walls built in the distinctive murus dacicus technique, blocks of cut stone tied together with timber beams, and a tower that served as the last refuge. It is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains listed by UNESCO in 1999, along with the capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and it is one of the easier ones to reach, with a path climbing through the forest from the valley road.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Capâlna comes up 41 km in. Next is Comărnicel I.
Comărnicel is the name on the map, and the Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie mountains, listed by UNESCO in 1999, are the reason this country matters. Here, in the first century BC and the first century AD, the Dacian kings built stone citadels on mountain tops, with terraces, walls and sacred precincts, the grandest of them Sarmizegetusa Regia, not far to the north-west.
Read the complete Comărnicel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
83 km in you reach Comărnicel I. Next is Voineasa - Crac-Găuri.
North of the Jiu Valley, the land rises steeply into the Șureanu and Parâng mountains, a wild region of high ridges, deep valleys, spruce forests and alpine meadows. Crac-Găuri lies up in this high country, linked by name to the old routes that crossed the mountains in Roman times, when Dacia was a province and soldiers watched the passes between the Transylvanian basin and the south. Little is visible today, and the remoteness is half the attraction: this is mountain land, where shepherds bring their flocks to high pastures in summer and the forest stretches for miles.
Read the complete Voineasa - Crac-Găuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri, about halfway. Next is Monastery of Horezu.
Constantin Brâncoveanu, prince of Wallachia at the end of the seventeenth century, was a wealthy, cultured ruler who built churches, palaces and monasteries across his principality, and Horezu was his masterpiece. Founded in 1690, the monastery sits in a quiet valley in the foothills of the Căpățânii mountains, surrounded by walls, with a church at the centre of a courtyard lined with arcaded cells. It is the finest example of the Brâncovenesc style, a blend of Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque, with carved stone, painted interiors and elegant porches, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1993. In 1714, Brâncoveanu and his four sons were executed by the Ottomans in Istanbul; the Romanian Orthodox Church later canonised them as martyrs.
Read the complete Monastery of Horezu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastery of Horezu sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Voineasa - Crac-Găuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri comes up 207 km in. Next is back through Comărnicel I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Comărnicel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
248 km in you reach back through Comărnicel I. Next is back through Capâlna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Capâlna, late in the day. Next is Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 452 km.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 → Capâlna is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Capâlna → Comărnicel I is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Comărnicel I → Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → Monastery of Horezu is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastery of Horezu → back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → back through Comărnicel I is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Comărnicel I → back through Capâlna is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Capâlna → Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.