Component including Aggtelek and Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
444 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 46
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
From Rožňava it runs 444 km to Rožňava; allow about 6 h 46 of riding. On the way it passes Levoča, Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve and back through Levoča. It crosses from Hungary into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Component including Aggtelek
Under these low wooded hills runs one of the great caves of Europe. The Baradla, a limestone passage about twenty-five kilometres long, starts near Aggtelek in Hungary and crosses the border into Slovakia, where it is called the Domica, so the same cave is entered from two countries. Water has been cutting it for millions of years, and the result is a series of halls and galleries filled with stalactites, stalagmites and dripping curtains of stone, kept at a steady temperature of about ten degrees all year. Guided tours go in through the Aggtelek entrance, and in one big hall called the Concert Hall, musicians perform, because the acoustics are so good. UNESCO listed the caves of the Aggtelek and Slovak Karst in 1995, one of the first cross-border natural sites in Europe.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Component including Aggtelek is where the day begins. Next is Levoča.
2. Levoča
Spread across a ridge in eastern Slovakia, with the jagged peaks of the High Tatras rising on the northern horizon, the Spiš region holds one of Europe's great clusters of medieval monuments. The town of Levoča, the old regional capital, was a wealthy royal free town, and its walls, burgher houses and Renaissance town hall still surround a long central square. Inside the church of St James stands Master Paul of Levoča's carved Gothic altarpiece, finished in the early sixteenth century and the tallest of its kind in the world, an astonishing tower of limewood saints and filigree.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Levoča comes up about 142 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve.
3. 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.