Pregrada - Kostelgrad

Access to the starting point:
a) Arrive in Croatia via the Rogatec / Hum na Sutli border crossing. Continue in the direction of Pregrad and after 15 minutes drive you will arrive in the town. Park in the large parking lot next to the church or in another suitable place.
b) Leave the Zagreb-Macelj motorway at the Zabok exit and take the direction Tuheljske Toplice, Krapinske Toplice at the roundabout. In the village of Jezero Klanječko, leave the main road and go in the direction Krapinske Toplice, Pregrada. When you arrive in Pregrada, park in the large parking lot next to the church or in another suitable place.

Path description:
From the church parking lot, head slightly uphill to the north. The mountain signposts are helpful. After a minute's walk, leave the asphalt and take the narrower path between the fences, which leads quickly into the forest.
In the forest, you will start to climb quite steeply. The ground will be rocky at times. The path then leads to a crossroads where you go right. There is a slightly more difficult climb over rocks, which leads to an exposed part. After the exposed part is the next crossroads, where a very steep unofficial shortcut goes straight ahead, and we go right and after a few minutes of climbing we come to a bend where the path turns sharp left to the west. The steepness gradually eases, and at the next bend we merge with the steep shortcut and after a minute of further walking we emerge from the forest in front of the mountain hut. Typical for this part of the trail are the crosses along the way.
The mountain hut is open at weekends but is not manned. From the hut you have an outstanding view of the village of Pregrada and further south.
From the hut, continue north along the asphalt road, which begins to descend after a while. When you reach the precipice, leave the road and turn right onto the forest road cart track (continue along the asphalt road Vina gora and Veliki Tabor).
Cart track starts to climb quickly and turns north at the bend. The climb is steep, and in the last part we will also have a problem with a difficult rocky and muddy surface, dangerous for slipping. Cart track lays down after this, but it is usually quite muddy. After a short time, cart track leads to a hunting observation post, where it is left and we go left to the west.
Soon you reach the next crossroads, where you go right in the direction of Kostelgrad (straight ahead the top of Kuna gora and the shelter of the mushroom family). Soon you reach cart track, where you go left, but only for a few metres, because you will leave cart track to the right. This part of the path is less well marked because some of the trees have been cut down (as at 2021). Continue along the path, which is sloping and quite muddy after rain.
After about five minutes, you reach the place where you leave cart track. We lose 100 metres of elevation as we start to descend, first through the forest and then for some time on cart track, which is quite steep at times. In winter it is possible to see our destination through the forest. At the end of the steep descent, there is a sharp bend to the right. Our path here is broken, but we continue to descend. After a few minutes we reach a crossroads where the descent ends and we go slightly uphill. After a few minutes of climbing, we reach a crossroads where we join the path from the village of Kostel.
The crossroads is at the foot of the ruins. Go right here and after a minute of further walking, at a bend on the left, there is the entrance to the ruins. Here we are helped by a wooden staircase. After the staircase, part of the path is protected by a railing and we have a view to the south. After a short walk through the ruins, we reach the highest part, where there is a small resting place with benches.

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