Trsteno Arboretum

Trsteno Arboretum lies at Potok 20 in the village of Trsteno, about 13 kilometres north-west of Dubrovnik on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, and is a day-trip destination from the city rather than part of the old town. The estate was established in the late 15th century as a summer residence of the Ragusan noble Gučetić family, also written Gozze, and it grew over the following centuries into one of the oldest arboretums in Croatia. Planted in stages, the gardens combine a formal Renaissance layout with a larger landscaped park added in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The estate contains an unusual collection of Mediterranean and exotic trees, including two plane trees estimated to be more than 500 years old, palms, cypresses, pines and citrus orchards, with beds of flowering shrubs. Architectural elements include a Renaissance summer house, a pergola, a stone aqueduct that supplies water to the gardens, a Baroque fountain of Neptune with a pond, and the remains of the family's 15th-century manor and chapel. The aqueduct and fountain reflect the engineering skill that Ragusan patricians applied to private estates. Part of the property was damaged by fire in 2000, and the park suffered further losses in the 1991-1992 war and in later fires, followed by replanting and repair. Following the Second World War, it passed to the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, now the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which runs it. The grounds are laid out for strolling along shaded paths, rather than a guided museum route, and the stone terraces open towards the sea. The arboretum has been used as a filming location for television series set in the fictional city of King's Landing. Most visitors reach Trsteno by local bus or car along the coastal road from Dubrovnik, and the village itself has a small harbour at Trsteno Bay.