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.
253 km from Sękowa to Sękowa, about 5 h 50 of riding. It goes by way of Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska, Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less, Hervartov and back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less. It crosses from Poland into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Lemkos, a mountain people of the Carpathians, built their churches of wood, with onion domes and steep shingle roofs stepping up in tiers toward the west tower, and the one at Owczary, in the Low Beskids south of Gorlice, is one of the finest. Built in the mid seventeenth century as a Greek Catholic church, it was later enlarged and painted inside with a rich polychrome decoration. After the Second World War the Lemkos were deported from this region in Operation Vistula, and the church was taken over by the Roman Catholic parish, while the Greek Catholic community has also returned to use it. It is part of the World Heritage listing of the Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine, inscribed in 2013.
Read the complete Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection is where the day begins. 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.
Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska comes up about 25 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 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less. Next is Hervartov.
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, about halfway. 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.
back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska comes up about 229 km into the recorded legs. Next is Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection closes the day.
Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection → Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska → Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → Hervartov is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hervartov → back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 39 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 Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska → Owczary-Tserkva of Our Lady’s Protection is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.