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 Bârsana it runs 233 km to Bârsana; allow about 4 h 48 of riding. On the way it passes Strimbu Băiuț, Church of the Holy Archangels, Chiuiești - Muncelul Chiuieștiului and back through Church of the Holy Archangels. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 52 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Maramureș is a region in the far north of Romania, along the Ukrainian border, where traditions have survived more strongly than almost anywhere else in Europe. Its villages are known for their carved wooden gates, their haystacks and their wooden churches, eight of which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bârsana, in the valley of the Iza river, has one of them, a church built in the eighteenth century, with a tall slender spire and a steep shingled roof.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of Maramureş write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wooden Churches of Maramureş is where the day begins. Next is Strimbu Băiuț.
Maramureș is a part of Romania where wooden building became an art. The county in the far north, tucked against the Ukrainian border and ringed by forested mountains, has hundreds of timber churches, and eight of them were listed by UNESCO in 1999. The one at Strâmbu, in the Băiuț area, belongs to the Nativity of the Virgin and dates from the eighteenth century, built of oak logs with a steep, double-tiered shingle roof and a tall slender spire. It looks like a church that has learned to float, with a roof that sheds the heavy snow and a tower that reaches for the sky.
Read the complete Strimbu Băiuț write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Strimbu Băiuț comes up about 52 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of the Holy Archangels.
The wooden church at Rogoz stands in the Lăpuș country, a quieter, lesser-known corner of Maramureș, south of the mountains and away from the main tourist circuits. Built in the seventeenth century and dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, it is unusual in shape: the roof is asymmetric and overhangs deeply on one side, and the eaves are supported by carved wooden brackets shaped like horse heads, a detail that seems to come straight out of folk tradition. Inside, the walls are painted with scenes from the Bible, including a vivid Last Judgement. It is one of the eight churches in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of the Holy Archangels. Next is Chiuiești - Muncelul Chiuieștiului.
North of Dej, in the hills of Cluj county, the land rises into a rolling upland of pastures, orchards and beech woods, cut by small valleys and dotted with villages. Muncelul Chiuieștiului is one of the hilltops above the village of Chiuiești, and the name is listed among archaeological sites of the Roman frontier in Dacia, which in this region ran along the hills to protect the province from the free Dacians and other peoples to the north. What exactly stood on this hilltop is something to learn from the local signs rather than assume; much of the frontier here consisted of small watchtowers and earthworks that left only faint traces.
Read the complete Chiuiești - Muncelul Chiuieștiului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chiuiești - Muncelul Chiuieștiului, about halfway. Next is back through Church of the Holy Archangels.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of the Holy Archangels sits at 112 km, about halfway. Next is back through Strimbu Băiuț.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Strimbu Băiuț write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Strimbu Băiuț comes up about 182 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wooden Churches of Maramureş.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of Maramureş write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wooden Churches of Maramureş closes the day.
Wooden Churches of Maramureş → Strimbu Băiuț is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Strimbu Băiuț → Church of the Holy Archangels is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Holy Archangels → Chiuiești - Muncelul Chiuieștiului is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chiuiești - Muncelul Chiuieștiului → back through Church of the Holy Archangels is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of the Holy Archangels → back through Strimbu Băiuț is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Strimbu Băiuț → Wooden Churches of Maramureş is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.