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.
390 km from Jabłonica Polska to Jabłonica Polska, about 7 h 51 of riding. The stops in between: Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch, Bodruzal, Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve and Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less. It crosses from Poland into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 56 km this is Bieszczady Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Haczów, a village in the foothills of the Carpathians in southeastern Poland, has a church that is considered the largest Gothic wooden church in Europe, and one of the oldest. Built in the fifteenth century, probably on the site of an earlier church, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Michael the Archangel is a massive structure of larch logs, with a steep shingled roof and a bell tower, standing among old trees. Inside, the walls are covered with polychrome paintings, the oldest from the late fifteenth century, showing saints, biblical scenes and decorative patterns, and the atmosphere is dim, warm and fragrant with old wood. In 2003 the church was listed by UNESCO among the Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska, along with five others in the region. It is still used for worship, so check visiting times and dress respectfully.
Read the complete Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi is where the day begins. Next is Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch.
The wooden church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Turzańsk stands on a gentle slope in the foothills of the Bieszczady mountains, in the far southeast of Poland, near the borders with Slovakia and Ukraine, with its onion domes rising above the trees. It was built in the early nineteenth century by the Lemko or Boyko communities, the Ruthenian highlanders who once lived in these mountains, and it is one of the wooden tserkvas of the Polish and Ukrainian Carpathian region listed by UNESCO in 2013. Inside, an iconostasis of painted icons separates the nave from the sanctuary, and the church is still used for Orthodox services.
Read the complete Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bodruzal.
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.
about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Bodruzal. Next is Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve.
Bardejov's main square is a long, gently sloping rectangle lined with Gothic and Renaissance burgher houses, their tall gables painted in pastel colours, with the Gothic Basilica of St Giles at the top and the old town hall standing alone in the middle. The town grew rich in the Middle Ages on trade between Hungary and Poland, and its walls, bastions and moat largely survive. Bardejov was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2000, along with its Jewish suburb, with a synagogue and ritual bath from the eighteenth century, a reminder of the community that lived here until the Holocaust.
Read the complete Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve, about halfway. Next is Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less.
Hidden among the hills of the Beskid Sądecki, close to the Slovak border in southern Poland, the little wooden church at Powroźnik is one of the oldest of its kind still standing in the country. Its oldest parts date from around 1600, and it belongs to the group of wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region listed by UNESCO in 2013. A tserkva is an Eastern-rite church, and this one was built by the Lemkos, the Rusyn highlanders who farmed these valleys for centuries until most were forcibly resettled after the Second World War. Today it serves as a Catholic church, but the shape tells its origin story at once: a tower with a bulging onion-like cap, stepped shingle roofs and dark timber walls weathered almost black.
Read the complete Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less sits at 173 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve comes up about 230 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through 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.
about 277 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Bodruzal. Next is back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch, late in the day. Next is Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 390 km.
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi → Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch → Bodruzal is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bodružal → Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve → Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve → back through Bodruzal is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bodruzal → back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Turzańsk-Tserkva of Saint Michael the Arch → Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Vi is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.