Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less and Component of Koniar plateau
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
334 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 53
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.
334 km from Muszyna to Muszyna, about 5 h 53 of riding. It goes by way of Kezmarok, Component of Koniar plateau and back through Kezmarok. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Poland into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Kezmarok.
2. 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 comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component of Koniar plateau.
3. Component of Koniar plateau
The Koniar plateau is a slab of limestone lifted above the surrounding valleys in southern Slovakia, one of the high karst tablelands that together make up the Slovak Karst. From the road it looks like nothing much: open grassland, scattered trees, a few pastures, steep wooded edges falling to the valleys of the Slaná and its tributaries. The interest is underneath. Rain soaks straight through the limestone, carving caves, shafts and swallow holes, and the whole cave system of the Slovak Karst and Hungary's Aggtelek, just over the border, is protected as a single World Heritage site. Nearby you will find the Ochtinská aragonite cave, filled with white needle-like crystals, the Gombasecká cave with its thin straw stalactites and, further north, the Dobšinská ice cave.