Holiday apartment in Trstená: cycling route, culture and nature

Trstená is the starting point for the Trstená–Nowy Targ cycling route, which begins in the town. In addition, a 3.507 km-long section of the Cesta okolo Tatier runs here: it follows a path along the Oravica River in the direction of Liesek and then continues along a railway embankment to the municipality of Liesek. Trstená can be reached by bicycle, car or trains that allow bicycles to be carried.

Cycling paths

Along the cycling route in Trstená, there are benches, waste bins, bicycle stands and information boards. These are supplemented by vertical traffic signs for pedestrians and cyclists. The facilities accompany the section described, as does the route along the Oravica and over the railway embankment.

Thus, the description of this section includes not only the two different path surfaces, but also the visible orientation signage and the permanent facilities along the route. The connection between Trstená and Liesek remains clearly structured through its sequence: first the route along the river, followed by the route along the railway embankment. The modes of transport mentioned add several options to the route description for incorporating Trstená and the cycling route into one’s own journey.

Culture

St. Martin’s Church stands on the Gothic foundations of Trstená’s first stone church, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. Its tower contains two exhibition levels and has a balcony height of 26.5 m. The crypt beneath St. Martin’s Church in Trstená was restored in 2017. The church building thus preserves several clearly distinguishable layers of the town’s history, from the medieval foundations to the present-day exhibition rooms.

The information about the foundations, crypt and tower places St. Martin’s Church in both a spatial and a chronological context. The two exhibition levels in the tower, the balcony height and the restored crypt represent different parts of the same building. This makes it possible to read the town’s history through specific architectural elements, without reducing St. Martin’s Church to a single era or a single form of exhibition.

The cultural side of Trstená also includes the Orava Clay Crèche, a permanent exhibition of the Trstená City Museum. Traditional Trstená ceramics are still produced in Trstená today by a master potter. Traditional pottery can also be tried out under the guidance of an experienced master potter.

Nature

The Bubeník educational trail uses bilingual interactive boards about the local cultural and natural heritage. At the end of the educational trail, on the summit of Bubeník Hill, there is a rest area with benches, a fire pit and a telescope. The rest area on the summit offers views of the Western Tatras with the Roháče, the Orava Reservoir and Babia Góra. Cultural and natural themes thus stand directly alongside the viewpoint and its specific facilities on this trail.

On the educational trail, interpretation and landscape therefore follow a comprehensible sequence: the bilingual boards focus on the local heritage, while the rest area brings the route at the summit to an end with specific facilities. The fire pit, benches and telescope are just as much part of this described point as the three named views. The trail thereby connects its information about the cultural and natural heritage with a clearly named viewpoint.

Events

The events calendar also adds a cultural accent. The Trstenská organová jeseň concert series takes place on 21 September, 28 September and 5 October 2025, each time at 16:00, in St. Martin’s Church in Trstená. In addition, the town of Trstená invited visitors to the XXX edition of the Trstenská krídlovka brass music festival.

The three dates of the concert series are one week apart and are uniformly scheduled for the afternoon. St. Martin’s Church, as the venue, thus returns to the town’s cultural context. Alongside it, the XXX edition of Trstenská krídlovka represents another named musical event in the events calendar.

More local pages: Zuberec, Tvrdosin, Vitanova, Oravsky Biely Potok, Nižná, Podbiel and Ústie Nad Priehradou.

To the higher-level travel overview: Tvrdošín.