Trsteno Arboretum

Twenty kilometres northwest of Dubrovnik, two Oriental plane trees stand guard at the entrance to the oldest arboretum in the world. They are over 500 years old, roughly 50 metres tall, and among the largest of their kind in Europe. Around 450 years ago, Captain Florio Jakob Antunov brought five saplings from the Bosphorus and planted them near a water spring. Three died. Two survived and grew into living monuments that have been nominated for European Tree of the Year.

The arboretum itself dates to the late 15th century, when the noble Gučetić-Gozze family established it as part of their Renaissance summer estate. By 1492, they had already built a 15-metre aqueduct to irrigate the gardens — a date that makes this garden contemporaneous with Columbus reaching the Americas. Over the following centuries, Dubrovnik's seafarers brought back seeds and specimens from every port they visited, creating a collection of over 300 exotic plant species from across the globe: eucalyptus, palms, flowering cactuses, Japanese camphor trees, and everything in between.

The Renaissance garden layout — geometric paths, fountains, a Neptune statue — has been maintained for over five centuries, making it one of the oldest continuously tended gardens in the world. The star feature is the baroque fountain with a Neptune and nymph sculpture, surrounded by a loggia that overlooks the sea. Game of Thrones used the arboretum as the gardens of King's Landing, particularly for scenes involving the Tyrell family. Olenna Tyrell's scheming happened here.

The arboretum was badly damaged during the 1991 war when shelling caused fires that destroyed parts of the historic garden. Restoration has been ongoing since, and the garden has largely recovered. Getting here requires a car or bus (the number 12 from Dubrovnik), but it's worth the trip — a living piece of Renaissance horticultural ambition that predates almost every botanical garden in Europe.