Trsteno Arboretum: Croatia's Oldest Botanical Garden & GoT Location

The Trsteno Arboretum, on the coast some twenty kilometres north-west of Dubrovnik, is the oldest surviving arboretum in this part of Europe. It was begun at the end of the 15th century around the summer villa of the Gučetić (Gozze) family, one of the patrician houses of the Dubrovnik Republic, who built an irrigation aqueduct from a distant spring and laid out a Renaissance garden of exotic trees.

The two Oriental plane trees at the entrance, more than five hundred years old and still alive, are the famous residents, but the garden also holds exotic species collected over the centuries, a baroque fountain of Neptune, a pavilion and a view over the sea. The arboretum was damaged in the 1990s and again by a fire in 2000, but it has been largely restored.

Trsteno is a quiet, shaded stop on the coast road and an easy half-day out of Dubrovnik, away from the crowds of the old town. It has also found a second life on screen as a filming location, used for the palace gardens in Game of Thrones.

For photographers, the plane trees and the sea view from the garden are the shots, best in the soft light of morning. Allow an unhurried hour, and take the coastal road rather than the highway for the approach.

Every spot here is mapped and verified. Share this guide if it helped plan your trip.