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 374 km round trip from Svidník - roughly 7 h 21 in the saddle. On the way it passes Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve, Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less, Levoča and Kezmarok. 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. The line favours views over speed.
In the village of Ladomirová, just north of Svidník in north-eastern Slovakia, a small wooden church dedicated to the Archangel Michael stands on a gentle rise among trees. Built in the eighteenth century by the Greek Catholic community without using a single nail, it has three wooden towers with onion-shaped tops, rising in height from east to west, and its interior holds an iconostasis of painted icons. It is one of the eight wooden churches of the Slovak Carpathians inscribed together by UNESCO in 2008, and its simplicity and craftsmanship are deeply moving.
Read the complete Ladomirová write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ladomirová is where the day begins. Next is 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.
Read the complete Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Read the complete Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less. Next is 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.
Read the complete Levoča write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Levoča, about halfway. Next is Kezmarok.
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.
Read the complete Kezmarok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kežmarok sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Levoča.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Levoča write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Levoča comes up about 230 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 300 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less. Next is back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve, late in the day. Next is Ladomirová.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ladomirová write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 374 km.
Ladomirová → Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve → Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → Levoča is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Levoča → Kezmarok is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kežmarok → back through Levoča is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Levoča → back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve → Ladomirová is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.