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.
From Novi Pazar it runs 201 km to Novi Pazar; allow about 4 h 13 of riding. It goes by way of Sopoćani Monastery, Studenica Monastery and back through Sopoćani Monastery. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
On a rocky hill above the town of Novi Pazar stands a small, round church, and it may be the oldest in Serbia. Petrova crkva, the church of St Peter, is a rotunda from the ninth or tenth century, built on the site of earlier foundations, and the medieval ruler Stefan Nemanja, who founded the Serbian state and the dynasty that followed, is said to have been baptised here. Its stone walls are worn, its interior is dim and its setting, with the town spreading out below and the hills behind, makes you feel the age. The surrounding area was the heart of the early Serbian kingdom, called Ras, and the area is protected as a World Heritage site, together with the nearby monastery of Sopocani.
Read the complete St. Peter's Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St. Peter's Church is where the day begins. Next is Sopoćani Monastery.
Sopoćani is one of the quietest and most beautiful monasteries in Serbia, and you may well be the only person in the church. It stands in a green valley a few kilometres west of Novi Pazar, near the springs of the Raška river, in a region that was the heartland of the early Serbian kingdom. King Stefan Uroš I founded it in the 1250s, and he is buried here, and the church was decorated with frescoes between about 1260 and 1270, painted by artists whose name we do not know but whose command of colour and space put them in the first rank of medieval European painting. UNESCO listed Sopoćani together with the nearby Old Ras in 1979.
Read the complete Sopoćani Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sopoćani Monastery comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Studenica Monastery.
The monastery of Studenica lies in a green gorge of the Golija mountains in central Serbia, where a clear river runs down through beech and oak woods toward the Ibar. Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the medieval Serbian state, began building it in the 1190s, and it became the model for all the monasteries that followed. Nemanja himself abdicated in 1196 and later became a monk, dying on Mount Athos in 1199. His son, Saint Sava, brought his father's remains back here, and they rest in the church today.
Read the complete Studenica Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Studenica Monastery. Next is back through Sopoćani Monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sopoćani Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sopoćani Monastery, late in the day. Next is St. Peter's Church, 36 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St. Peter's Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at St. Peter's Church. That is the ride.
St. Peter's Church → Sopoćani Monastery is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sopoćani Monastery → Studenica Monastery is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Studenica Monastery → back through Sopoćani Monastery is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sopoćani Monastery → St. Peter's Church is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.