Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension and Church of Saint Nicholas
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
335 km
Riding-time estimate
8 h 11
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Yasinya it runs 335 km to Yasinya; allow about 8 h 11 of riding. It goes by way of Maramarosh, Svydovets, Kuziy - Trybushany and Church of Saint Nicholas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Ukraine into Romania - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Scenic road chapters
Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 37 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
37 km
Named road
Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension
High in the Ukrainian Carpathians, in the valley of the Black Tisa, the village of Yasinia stretches along the river beneath steep spruce-clad slopes. On a rise near its centre stands a small wooden church, the Church of the Ascension, sometimes called the Strukivska church, built in the early nineteenth century by Hutsul craftsmen without nails. Its stepped roofs, covered in wooden shingles, and its small domes give it a cosy, fairytale shape, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Yasynia-Tserkva of Our Lord’s Ascension is where the day begins. Next is Maramarosh.
2. Maramarosh
On the map, the line between Romania and Ukraine runs along the Tisza river here, and on either side of it the Carpathians rise in forested ridges. Maramarosh is the old name for the whole region, Maramureș to Romanians, and it is also the name of a protected forest within the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve on the Ukrainian side, one component of the World Heritage inscription for ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe. These are forests where beech trees have grown undisturbed since the last ice age, with giants several hundred years old and a richness of life that has vanished from most of Europe.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Maramarosh comes up 40 km in. Next is Svydovets.
3. Svydovets
The Svydovets is a long, high ridge in the Ukrainian Carpathians, rising above the upper Tisza valley near the town of Rakhiv in Zakarpattia. Its southern and northern slopes hold some of the wildest primeval beech forest left in Europe, protected as part of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and included in the UNESCO site of Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. Above the trees lie broad alpine meadows, the polonyna, where Hutsul shepherds traditionally drove their flocks each summer, with glacial lakes tucked below the ridge.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
81 km in you reach Svydovets. Next is Kuziy - Trybushany.
4. Kuziy - Trybushany
The river Tisza runs fast and green out of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and for many kilometres it forms the border between Romania and Ukraine. On the Ukrainian bank, the forests of Kuziy and Trybushany are among the primeval beech woods protected in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and listed by UNESCO as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. From the Romanian side, around Valea Vișeului, you look across the river at steep, wooded slopes where the trees have grown and died without interference for centuries.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kuziy - Trybushany, about halfway. Next is Church of Saint Nicholas.
5. Church of Saint Nicholas
Budești is one of the old villages of the Cosău valley in Maramureș, the far northern corner of Romania, where traditional life has survived longer than almost anywhere else in Europe. Its wooden church of St Nicholas, built in the seventeenth century, is a masterpiece of the local carpentry tradition: a dark timber body with a tall, steep shingled roof and a slender spire that seems to pierce the sky. Inside, the walls are covered with painted scenes from the Bible, and among the church's treasures is a coat of chain mail said to have belonged to Pintea the Brave, a legendary outlaw hero of the region. The church is one of eight in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.