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 259 km round trip from Kežmarok - roughly 4 h 45 in the saddle. On the way it passes Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less, Church of St Leonard and back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Slovakia into Poland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kežmarok
Kežmarok sits at the foot of the High Tatras in northern Slovakia, and on a clear day the jagged peaks of the smallest high mountain range in Europe rise above the town like a wall. It is an old town with a mixed history: founded by German settlers in the Middle Ages, it was a free royal town and a centre of trade and crafts, and its wealthy citizens built a castle, churches and fine houses around the square.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kežmarok is where the day begins. Next is Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of St Leonard.
3. Church of St Leonard
The hills around Limanowa in southern Poland have a nickname that suits them perfectly: the Beskid Wyspowy, the Island Beskids. Instead of forming a continuous ridge, the summits rise individually from the surrounding valleys like islands from a sea, each one wooded, rounded and separate. Driving through the area is a constant game of spotting the next hump on the horizon. The famous wooden church of St Leonard stands at Lipnica Murowana, in the hills to the north of here, and it is one of the Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland listed by UNESCO in 2003.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Kezmarok. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Kežmarok to Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less
Kežmarok → Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less to Church of St Leonard
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → Church of St Leonard is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of St Leonard to back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less
Church of St Leonard → back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less to Kezmarok
back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → Kezmarok is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.