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.
286 km from Svidník to Svidník, about 6 h 23 of riding. It goes by way of Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection, Church of St Leonard and back through Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection. It crosses from Slovakia into Poland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Bodružal is a tiny Rusyn village in the far northeast of Slovakia, close to the Polish border, with a few dozen houses scattered along a valley among the forested hills of the Low Beskids. What brings people here is its wooden church of St Nicholas, built in 1658, a three-domed Greek Catholic church with shingled walls and onion-shaped towers stepping up from east to west. It is one of the eight churches in the UNESCO listing of the wooden churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian mountain area, and it is a perfect example of the Lemko style: compact, harmonious and rooted in its landscape. Inside, the iconostasis glows with painted saints.
Read the complete Bodruzal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bodružal is where the day begins. Next is Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection.
The Lemkos, a mountain people of the Carpathians, built their churches of wood, with onion domes and steep shingle roofs stepping up in tiers toward the west tower, and the one at Owczary, in the Low Beskids south of Gorlice, is one of the finest. Built in the mid seventeenth century as a Greek Catholic church, it was later enlarged and painted inside with a rich polychrome decoration. After the Second World War the Lemkos were deported from this region in Operation Vistula, and the church was taken over by the Roman Catholic parish, while the Greek Catholic community has also returned to use it. It is part of the World Heritage listing of the Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine, inscribed in 2013.
Read the complete Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of St Leonard.
The hills around Limanowa in southern Poland have a nickname that suits them perfectly: the Beskid Wyspowy, the Island Beskids. Instead of forming a continuous ridge, the summits rise individually from the surrounding valleys like islands from a sea, each one wooded, rounded and separate. Driving through the area is a constant game of spotting the next hump on the horizon. The famous wooden church of St Leonard stands at Lipnica Murowana, in the hills to the north of here, and it is one of the Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland listed by UNESCO in 2003.
Read the complete Church of St Leonard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of St Leonard. Next is back through Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection, late in the day. Next is Bodruzal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bodruzal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Bodruzal. That is the ride.
Bodružal → Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection → Church of St Leonard is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church of St Leonard → back through Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection → Bodruzal is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.