One thing I have learned you should never forget to look up before traveling is the list of public holidays at your destination. You’ve got big plans- you’re going to hit up a couple museums, visit a church or two and then go to that awesome restaurant everyone who had just come from this city at your last hostel had been raving about- only to find everything is closed and the streets are deserted as everyone has the day off.
This happened to me when I arrived via the overnight train from Belgrade on August 15, The Assumption of Mary Day, in Zagreb. Even early in the morning I could tell something wasn’t right as I passed darkened bakeries and coffee shops. But, this is all part of travel and learning to roll with the punches. When the city closes shop, it’s time for a nature hike, which is exactly what I did when I set my sights on Medvedgrad, an ancient fortress on Medvednica Mountain that overlooks Zagreb to the north. Before leaving I made sure to stock up on some water at the train station; always make sure you have plenty of water on you because you never want to find yourself wandering around in a foreign country without it.
You can take a bus most of the way (which I’ll get into later), but with beautiful weather and nothing else to do I decided I would hike at least the way there. According to my very unscientific iPhone tracking methods, the hike ended up being about 13km (~8mi) and if you didn’t guess before, it’s all uphill. I didn’t see any marked paths pointing to the mountain so I simply relied on google maps to lead the way. I essentially stuck to one large thoroughfare which changed names three times (Tuškanac became Gornje Prekrižje which finally turned into Ul. Šestinski vijenac) before reaching Sveti Mirko before the entrance to the mountain park.
Sveti Mirko- if you reach this gorgeous blue and gold tile roof you’re on the right track.
It’s just another 5-10 minutes until you reach the park entrance. I snapped a picture of the park sign to use a map; the trails up the mountain are well-marked with red dots, but there aren’t too many signs saying where each trail leads.
Up until this point my hike had been on paved road and at a steady, but not-to-steep incline. Once I started up the park’s hiking trails the terrain was slightly more adventurous and all on dirt trails.
If you’re going to take a hike like this you some sort of pay off, right? Well, Medvedgrad definitely delivers on that. The fortress was built in the 13th Century and had numerous owners until a great earthquake hit Zagreb in 1590 and left the fortress in ruins. It remained abandoned until the late 1970s when restoration projects slowly began. Today the Chapel of St. Philip and Jacob, the South Tower and parts of the residential palace have been rebuilt.
The outer walls, showing glimpses of the South Tower and the Chapel.
The Chapel of St. Philip and Jacob
Climbing to the top of the South Tower will give you the best views of Zagreb of Medvednica.
Everything feels so much more peaceful on the way down than the way up!
By this point I was really hungry and just wanted to get back to the city center. I noticed bus stops for the 102 line on my way out of town and found a 102 stop right by Sveti Mirko. You can buy a ticket directly from a bus (or tram) driver in Kuna and theoretically they will have change for you, but best have to close to exact change as possible on you. Definitely don’t try to pay with a big bill. Once you purchase your ticket make sure to validate in the yellow machine on the bus. Single tickets remain valid for either 30 or 90 minutes; multi-day passes are also available, although Zagreb is extremely walkable and other than this trek out to Medvedgrad I never used public transit in the city.
My 30 minute bus ticket for 4kn. (Don’t forget to validate!!)
This looks like a wonderful place to visit!