Birkenau and Historic Centre of Kraków starting at Oświęcim

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Birkenau

   Birkenau is the second and largest part of the Auschwitz camp complex, built by the Nazi regime from 1941 on the flat land near Brzezinka, just outside Oświęcim in southern Poland. It is where most of the million or so people murdered at Auschwitz were killed, the great majority of them Jews. The camp was meant to be seen from the entrance, with the brick gatehouse and the railway line running straight through it, and that scale is the first thing that silences visitors. There is no softening it, and nobody who goes should expect to.

   Read the complete Birkenau write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Birkenau is where the day begins. Next is Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi.

2. 2. Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi

   In 1600, Mikołaj Zebrzydowski, a Polish nobleman, began to build a chapel on a hill south-west of Kraków, modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Over the following decades, he and his descendants added dozens of chapels and churches spread over the hills, laid out to recreate the Passion of Christ and the life of the Virgin, with the landscape itself standing in for Jerusalem. The result, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Poland and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999.

   Read the complete Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Kraków.

3. 3. Historic Centre of Kraków

   Every hour, a trumpeter plays a short melody from the taller tower of St Mary's Basilica on Kraków's market square, and every time the tune breaks off abruptly mid-phrase. Legend says it commemorates a watchman shot by a Tatar arrow in the throat as he sounded the alarm in the thirteenth century, and the hejnał has been played that way ever since, broadcast daily on Polish radio at noon. It is a fitting introduction to a city that wears its history so openly. The Rynek Główny, the main square, is one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, with the Renaissance Cloth Hall in the middle, and the historic centre, including Wawel Hill and the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, was among the first sites ever placed on the UNESCO list in 1978.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of Kraków write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Kraków. Next is back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi.

4. 4. back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi, late in the day. Next is Birkenau.

5. 5. Birkenau

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Birkenau write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Birkenau. That is the ride.