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.
A 365 km round trip from Bardejov - roughly 6 h 01 in the saddle. On the way it passes Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš, Component of Koniar plateau and back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Hervartov is a small village in the hills of north-eastern Slovakia, a few kilometres from Bardejov, and its wooden church of Saint Francis of Assisi is considered the oldest surviving wooden church in the country, built in the late Middle Ages in the Gothic style. It is one of eight wooden churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountain Area inscribed by UNESCO in 2008, alongside Greek Catholic, Protestant and Roman Catholic churches that together tell the story of the many faiths and peoples of this borderland.
Read the complete Hervartov write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hervartov is where the day begins. Next is Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš.
Master Paul of Levoča carved the tallest Gothic wooden altar in the world, and you can stand in front of it in the church of St James in the centre of this walled town in eastern Slovakia. Completed in the early sixteenth century, the altar rises almost nineteen metres, with life-size figures of the Virgin and saints in limewood, painted and gilded, under a forest of pinnacles. It is the masterpiece of a sculptor about whom little is known beyond his work, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of Levoča, Spiš Castle and the associated cultural monuments.
Read the complete Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component of Koniar plateau.
The Koniar plateau is a slab of limestone lifted above the surrounding valleys in southern Slovakia, one of the high karst tablelands that together make up the Slovak Karst. From the road it looks like nothing much: open grassland, scattered trees, a few pastures, steep wooded edges falling to the valleys of the Slaná and its tributaries. The interest is underneath. Rain soaks straight through the limestone, carving caves, shafts and swallow holes, and the whole cave system of the Slovak Karst and Hungary's Aggtelek, just over the border, is protected as a single World Heritage site. Nearby you will find the Ochtinská aragonite cave, filled with white needle-like crystals, the Gombasecká cave with its thin straw stalactites and, further north, the Dobšinská ice cave.
Read the complete Component of Koniar plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 184 km into the recorded legs you reach Component of Koniar plateau. Next is back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš, late in the day. Next is Hervartov.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hervartov write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hervartov. That is the ride.
Hervartov → Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš → Component of Koniar plateau is 87 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Koniar plateau → back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš is 87 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš → Hervartov is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.