Bukovo combines a distinct church history with cycling routes that pass through the village. St. Leonard’s Church, the lime trees on the church hill and the monument in the cemetery provide clear points of interest for a visit; Trail No. 2 and Trail No. 7 add information about different routes. When planning, it is therefore worth first asking whether you would like to get to know Bukovo mainly through its church and local history or through its cycling routes. Both are rooted in the village, but call for different kinds of attention: at St. Leonard’s, the altar, statue and chapel take centre stage, while route choice depends on distance, course and gradient.

St. Leonard’s: Church and Chapel

St. Leonard’s Church is one of the oldest churches in the Cerkno area. It is said to have already existed in Bukovo in 1594. The main altar features a new statue of Saint Leonard; the original statue from the former wooden church is in a chapel behind the old rectory. The two statues thus lead to different points in the church’s history: the former wooden church and the main altar of the church in Bukovo. The chapel was restored in 2002 and decorated with new frescoes. This adds a clearly more recent phase of design to the early church history.

Church Hill, Meeting Place and Monument

At the edge of the village, century-old lime trees stand on the church hill. The area below the church remains a popular meeting place for the residents of Bukovo and Zakojca. In the cemetery next to the church stands the Bukovo monument: a stone obelisk with name plaques attached to the cemetery wall. These three features—the hill, meeting place and cemetery—situate the church, community life and monument at different points.

Cycling Routes and Directions to Zakojca

Trail No. 2 runs for about nine kilometres through Bukovo, Kojca and Jesenica. Trail No. 7 passes through Bukovo to the crossroads for Zakojca and Grahovo. Trail No. 7 also includes a long, winding and steep climb to the scattered settlement of Bukovski vrh. Trail No. 2 therefore mainly answers the question of approximate distance, while Trail No. 7 provides directions to the crossroads and information about the gradient.

From the Cerkno side, the shorter and steeper access road to Zakojca runs from Reka through Bukovo. Zakojca also features on the cycling route, as one of the directions at the Trail No. 7 crossroads. When looking for a holiday apartment, you can consider whether the local history around the church and monument or the cycling routes described here should shape your stay. The different information about distance, course and gradient provides concrete points of reference, without reducing the two trails to the same type of route.

Discover more destinations: Idrija, Vojsko, Lome, Črni Vrh, Zakriž, Cerkno, Srednja Kanomlja.

Go to the main travel overview: Idrija.