Trsteno Arboretum
Two plane trees over five centuries old survived a Yugoslav naval bombardment and two fires — and they're still standing.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Dubrovnik offline.
A noble family sent their ship captains around the world for seeds, and what grew became Croatia's oldest Renaissance park, laid out in 1502. The arboretum was shelled and set on fire by the Yugoslav People's Army in October 1991, then lost 120,000 square metres to wildfire in 2000. An aqueduct built in 1492 still irrigates the grounds. Game of Thrones filmed the Red Keep gardens here in seasons three and four.
What to look for
- The two Oriental Plane trees on the central market place of Trsteno — over 500 years old, trunks 5 m in diameter, 45–60 m tall, and described as unique specimens in Europe
- The 15 m-span aqueduct, built in 1492 to water the garden and still in daily use
- The Renaissance park surrounding the 15th-century summer residence, the oldest such park in Croatia
In Trsteno village on the coastal road north of Dubrovnik; the protected area covers 255,000 square metres and is managed by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Trsteno Arboretum is one of 12 sights worth the detour in Dubrovnik, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dubrovnik pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dubrovnik
- Walls of DubrovnikWalk an unbroken 1,940-metre circuit of medieval stone — up to 25 metres above the old city — that held Ragusa independent for centuries.
- Rector's PalaceFour disasters over two centuries — fire, a gunpowder explosion, and two earthquakes — rebuilt this palace each time in a different style and left the evidence in plain sight.
- Dubrovnik CathedralA Baroque church rebuilt from the rubble of Dubrovnik's 1667 earthquake — its foundations partly funded by Richard the Lionheart, who owed a votive for surviving a shipwreck off Lokrum on his way home from the Third Crusade.
- StradunEvery building on this 300-metre limestone street was rebuilt to a government blueprint after the 1667 earthquake — and it shows.
- Sponza PalaceA stone arch inside warns every merchant: "When I measure goods, God measures with me."
- Franciscan Church & MonasteryThe 1667 earthquake flattened the church. One portal from 1498 made it through — and carved into it is a miniature of everything that didn't.