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.
292 km from Spišské Podhradie to Spišské Podhradie, about 5 h 17 of riding. On the way it passes Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve, Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska and back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve. It crosses from Slovakia into Poland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
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 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 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska.
The church of St Michael the Archangel in Binarowa looks, from the outside, like a simple barn with a tower: dark shingled walls, a steep roof and a small onion-topped belfry. Step inside and the walls and ceiling explode with colour, covered with painted decoration of saints, scenes from the Bible and floral patterns, some of them centuries old. Built around 1500 of larch and fir, without nails in the traditional joinery, it is one of the Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska, a group of Gothic churches inscribed as a World Heritage site. The local story is that it was built from timber left over from another church, but whatever its origins, the result is one of the finest wooden interiors in Poland.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska. 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 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 at Levoča. That is the ride.
Levoča → Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve → Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska → back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve → Levoča is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.