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.
293 km from Gura Humorului to Gura Humorului, about 6 h 54 of riding. On the way it passes Codrul Secular Slătioara, Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster, Church of the Holy Rood of Patrauti and back through Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Voroneț is known as the Sistine Chapel of the East, and it earned the name with a colour. The little church of St George, built in 1488 by Stephen the Great, prince of Moldavia, is covered inside and out with frescoes, and the outside, especially, glows with a deep blue that has never been exactly replicated and is now called Voroneț blue. The west wall carries a vast Last Judgment, added in 1547, in which rivers of fire pull the damned toward the pit while saints, angels and a procession of animals look on. Legend says that Stephen built the church in three months, three weeks and three days after a victory over the Ottomans.
Read the complete Church of St George of the former Voronet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of St George of the former Voronet is where the day begins. Next is Codrul Secular Slătioara.
Slătioara is old-growth forest of the kind that Europe has mostly lost. The reserve, tucked into the slopes of the Rarău and Giumalău ranges above the Moldova valley, protects beech, fir and spruce that have never been seriously logged, and it is part of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians that UNESCO recognised. Walk under the canopy and you notice the scale first: trunks as thick as a doorway, fallen giants furred with moss, and a dim green light even at noon.
Read the complete Codrul Secular Slătioara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Codrul Secular Slătioara comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster.
Moldovița is the monastery that makes people go quiet in the courtyard. It sits in a green pocket of the Bukovina hills, ringed by a stout defensive wall with corner towers, and inside it the Church of the Annunciation is painted from the ground to the eaves with saints, prophets and battle scenes in blues, reds and ochres that have survived some five centuries of Carpathian weather. It was founded in the time of Petru Rareș, in the 1530s, and it belongs to the famous group of painted churches of northern Moldavia that UNESCO lists together.
Read the complete Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster. Next is Church of the Holy Rood of Patrauti.
In 1487 Stephen the Great of Moldavia had a small church built at Pătrăuți, dedicated to the Holy Rood, and it still stands, among the earliest of his many foundations and today part of the UNESCO listing of Moldavian churches. It is a modest building, whitewashed and low, with a steep roof, and it stands in a village on the edge of Suceava county, a stone's throw from Dărmănești. The scale surprises people who come expecting a cathedral, and then the frescoes inside bring them up short.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Rood of Patrauti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Rood of Patrauti, about halfway. Next is back through Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster sits at 173 km, about halfway. Next is back through Codrul Secular Slătioara.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Codrul Secular Slătioara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Codrul Secular Slătioara comes up about 264 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of St George of the former Voronet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of St George of the former Voronet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of St George of the former Voronet closes the day.
Church of St George of the former Voronet → Codrul Secular Slătioara is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Codrul Secular Slătioara → Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster → Church of the Holy Rood of Patrauti is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church of the Holy Rood of Patrauti → back through Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Church of the Annunciation of the Monaster → back through Codrul Secular Slătioara is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Codrul Secular Slătioara → Church of St George of the former Voronet is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.