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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323 km from Deseşti to Deseşti, about 6 h 48 of riding. The stops in between: Church of the Holy Archangels, Spermezeu - Lazuri, Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci and back through Spermezeu - Lazuri. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 37 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In 1780 a painter named Radu Munteanu covered the inside of the wooden church at Desești with scenes that still shock and delight: a Last Judgment in which sinners are marched off to a hell full of grinning devils, alongside saints, prophets and lively village figures. The church, dedicated to the Holy Paraskeva and built in 1770 from oak logs, rises above the village with a tall, slender tower and a steep double roof of shingles. It is one of the eight wooden churches of Maramureș inscribed by UNESCO in 1999, and its paintings are among the best preserved of them all.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Paraskeva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Paraskeva is where the day begins. Next is Church of the Holy Archangels.
Just outside Baia Mare, where the city gives way to the hills, the countryside of northern Romania begins to show the tradition that made this region famous: churches built entirely of wood, with steep shingled roofs and tall, needle-like spires. Many of them are dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, and this dedication is common across the region, from small village churches to some of the eight Wooden Churches of Maramureș listed by UNESCO in 1999. Surdești and Plopiș, both within a short ride of Baia Mare, are among the finest of those, with spires that seem far too tall for the buildings beneath them.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Archangels comes up 36 km in.
The wooden church at Rogoz stands in the Lăpuș country, a quieter, lesser-known corner of Maramureș, south of the mountains and away from the main tourist circuits. Built in the seventeenth century and dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, it is unusual in shape: the roof is asymmetric and overhangs deeply on one side, and the eaves are supported by carved wooden brackets shaped like horse heads, a detail that seems to come straight out of folk tradition. Inside, the walls are painted with scenes from the Bible, including a vivid Last Judgement. It is one of the eight churches in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
72 km in you reach Church of the Holy Archangels. Next is Spermezeu - Lazuri.
Spermezeu is a village in the hilly country of western Bistriţa-Năsăud county, in northern Transylvania, where low ridges covered with orchards, hayfields and beech woods roll between the Someş valley and the Ţibleş mountains. The site called Spermezeu - Lazuri belongs to the series of places along the northern edge of the Roman province of Dacia, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listed in Romania in 2024. Here the Romans watched the border with watchtowers and small fortifications on hilltops, and though little remains above ground, the commanding views explain why these spots were chosen.
Read the complete Spermezeu - Lazuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Spermezeu - Lazuri, about halfway. Next is Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci.
The Țibleș massif rises like a dark green wall between Maramureș and the Bistrița country of northern Romania, an old volcanic range topped by the Țibleș peak at around eighteen hundred metres. On its southern flanks, above the village of Groșii Țibleșului, lie the forests of Preluci, part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe that UNESCO has protected as one sprawling, multi-country site. These are woods left largely to themselves, where old beeches grow huge, fall, rot and feed the next generation without a forester in sight.
Read the complete Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Spermezeu - Lazuri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Spermezeu - Lazuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Spermezeu - Lazuri comes up 181 km in. Next is back through Church of the Holy Archangels.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
217 km in you reach back through Church of the Holy Archangels.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of the Holy Archangels, late in the day. Next is Church of the Holy Paraskeva.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Paraskeva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 323 km.
Church of the Holy Paraskeva → Church of the Holy Archangels is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Holy Archangels → Church of the Holy Archangels is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Holy Archangels → Spermezeu - Lazuri is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Spermezeu - Lazuri → Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci → back through Spermezeu - Lazuri is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Spermezeu - Lazuri → back through Church of the Holy Archangels is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of the Holy Archangels → back through Church of the Holy Archangels is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of the Holy Archangels → Church of the Holy Paraskeva is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.