Why this ride
Sustained elevation change, linked bends and open summit views. It also links naturally to Wooden Churches of Maramures.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Maramures Wooden Churches Route
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 170 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 41
- 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.
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.
Access context
High passes are seasonal. Verify surface, weather and construction status. Specific flag: weather.
Seasonal context
May-Oct
Scenic road chapters
Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 19 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 19 km
- Named road
- Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Baia Mare
Baia Mare means the big mine, and the town has earned it. For centuries, gold, silver, lead and copper were dug from the hills around it, and the city grew rich on metal, with medieval Hungarian kings granting it privileges and encouraging German miners to settle. A hundred and thirty-six thousand people live here now, in a bustling northern city with a lively centre, and the mining past is visible in the old buildings, the museum and the scarred hills around.
Read the complete Baia Mare write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Baia Mare sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Bârsana.
2. Bârsana
Maramureș is the corner of Romania where the twentieth century arrived late and politely, and Bârsana is a fine place to see what it left alone. The village strings itself along the Izei valley under forested hills, with high carved wooden gates in front of the farmhouses, haystacks built round tall poles in the meadows, and women in headscarves going about their business as if no coach had ever stopped. Sighetu Marmației, the nearest real town, lies about fifteen kilometres to the north-west, and the Ukrainian border is not far beyond it.
Read the complete Bârsana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bârsana comes up 42 km in. Next is Sighetu Marmaţiei.
3. Sighetu Marmaţiei
Sighetu Marmației sits where the Iza meets the Tisa, and across the Tisa is Ukraine, so the whole town has the slightly watchful air of a border place that has changed hands more than once. It was Hungarian for centuries, Czechoslovak for a short while, then Romanian, and in the early twentieth century it had one of the largest Jewish communities in the region. Elie Wiesel was born here in 1928, and his childhood home is now a small museum. The town is the biggest in Maramureș, with about forty thousand people, and it has every service you could want, including plenty of fuel.
Read the complete Sighetu Marmaţiei write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
84 km in you reach Sighetu Marmaţiei. Next is Borşa.
4. Borşa
Borșa spreads along the Vișeu valley in northern Maramureș, a long straggling town of twenty-seven thousand with the high, bare ridge of the Rodna Mountains rising to the south. Pietrosul Rodnei, the highest summit, tops two thousand three hundred metres, and the range is a national park with alpine meadows, glacial lakes and a population of chamois. In winter the town becomes a ski resort, with a lift climbing the slopes above the spa suburb of Băile Borșa, where mineral springs rise in the woods.
Read the complete Borşa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Borşa, late in the day.