Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva and Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
241 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 19
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 Uście Gorlickie it runs 241 km to Uście Gorlickie; allow about 5 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of Church of St Leonard, Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines and back through Church of St Leonard. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva
The little wooden church at Kwiatoń is often called the most beautiful of its kind in Poland, and when you see it you understand why. Built in the seventeenth century by the Lemko community, it has three parts, each topped by a tower with a bulbous cupola, rising in height from the sanctuary at the east to the bell tower at the west, all clad in wooden shingles and set in a green churchyard among old trees. Inside, painted walls and an iconostasis of icons glow in the dim light. It is one of the wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine inscribed by UNESCO in 2013.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva is where the day begins. Next is Church of St Leonard.
2. 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
Church of St Leonard comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines.
3. Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
Under the town of Wieliczka, at the southern edge of the Krakow suburbs, lies a labyrinth of tunnels, chambers and lakes cut out of salt, nine levels deep, with the lowest more than three hundred metres below the surface. Salt has been mined here since the thirteenth century, and the mine, together with the one at Bochnia some twenty kilometres east, was one of the first sites placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, in 1978. Wieliczka has nearly nineteen thousand people, and the mine entrance is about a kilometre from the centre.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva to Church of St Leonard
Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva → Church of St Leonard is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church of St Leonard to Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
Church of St Leonard → Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines to back through Church of St Leonard
Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines → back through Church of St Leonard is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of St Leonard to Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva
back through Church of St Leonard → Kwiatoń-Tserkva of Saint Paraskeva is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.