Trsteno Arboretum
The Trsteno Arboretum is one of the oldest arboretums in the world, located in Croatia. The park is a 15-minute drive from Dubrovnik.
The arboretum was built as a place for recreation at the end of the 15th century by the Gucetich-Gozce family. The exact date of construction is unknown, but in 1492 there was already an aqueduct for watering plants. To expand his collection of plants, the head of the family asked the captains of the ships to bring him plant seeds from long voyages. Thanks to this, the garden boasts a large collection of plants and trees dating back more than half a century from all over the world, and even hummingbirds. Some trees are over 50 meters tall and 5 meters in diameter.
In 1945, the park became Yugoslav property, and in 1948 the arboretum was donated to the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 1962, it was added to the list of protected natural monuments as a monument of landscape architecture. There are 25 hectares of the garden territory under protection, divided into several areas: a park area, an olive grove, playgrounds with sea views, pavilions. The main symbol of the garden is a fountain with a statue of the god Neptune. Also in the arboretum there is a creamery, a small chapel, an ancient aqueduct, walking along the paths you can climb the mountain with a gazebo.
It was here that the episodes of the TV series "Game of Thrones" were filmed. The arboretum was the royal gardens in the "Red Castle", the residence of the king of the Andals and the first people in King's Landing.
