Apparition Hill: the climb, timed both ways
Twenty minutes up and twenty minutes down, timed separately on the same day. The limestone above Plavi križ is polished rather than loose, so it is the descent that costs the time — and no published figure we could find gives a descent for this hill at all.
Podbrdo is the lower of the two hills — 90 metres of ascent — and the one most pilgrims climb first. It is short. It is not easy.
The two numbers
Twenty minutes up. Twenty minutes down. Both walked and timed separately on 27 August 2026, and they came back equal, which is the fact worth carrying away from this page. The rock here is not loose so much as polished: decades of feet have worn the karst smooth, and smooth limestone is slower to descend than to climb. In rain, or under dust, it is worse.
From the west door of St James the whole thing is forty-seven minutes: twenty-seven on the flat to Plavi križ at the foot, then twenty on the hill.
Where it gets hard
Immediately above Plavi križ, where the earth path gives out and becomes rock. That transition is the moment the climb starts properly, and it is early — there is no warm-up.
There is no shade at all. The hill carries low scrub and nothing that casts a shadow, which matters more here than the height does.
Start by this time, or come down in the dark
The number that matters on a hill is not sunset. It is last usable light — the end of civil twilight, roughly half an hour after the sun goes down. Plan a descent to sunset and you cut the evening short for nothing; plan it to full dark and you come down loose limestone with a phone torch.
| Month | Sunset | Last usable light | Start Podbrdo by |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 16:38 | 17:09 | 15:39 |
| February | 17:19 | 17:48 | 16:18 |
| March | 17:54 | 18:22 | 16:52 |
| April | 19:30 | 20:00 | 18:30 |
| May | 20:05 | 20:38 | 19:08 |
| June | 20:30 | 21:05 | 19:35 |
| July | 20:27 | 21:01 | 19:31 |
| August | 19:53 | 20:24 | 18:54 |
| September | 19:00 | 19:29 | 17:59 |
| October | 18:07 | 18:36 | 17:06 |
| November | 16:26 | 16:56 | 15:26 |
| December | 16:14 | 16:47 | 15:17 |
Working: 20 min up + 30 min at the top + 20 min down +20 min buffer = 1 h 30 before last usable light. The climb and the descent were walked and timed; the buffer is ours, and it is deliberately generous — a measured time is a fit adult's on a dry day. Twilight is worked out for 43.1784° N, 17.6905° E, mid-month, in local time. Works with no signal, and it prints.
What we have not checked
Whether the approach or the hill is lit after dark, and how the polished rock behaves in the wet — it was recorded dry, and “extremely slippery in rain” is what the surface suggests rather than something anybody has walked. Neither is published as a measured fact until somebody has been up there to see it.