May 2nd: Trsteno Gardens

In 1502 a Dubrovnic nobleman built his summer villa here at Trsteno, with extensive formal gardens laid out according to the fashion of that era. The villa and gardens were maintained by the same family until 1948 when the newly installed communist regime confiscated the estate as part of their removal of the aristocracy. Today it is still run by the state, the Croatian Academy of Science, which has further developed the grounds to include an arboretum.
The setting is stunningly beautiful, high up and directly overlooking a coast of little bays and a sea dotted with islands. The first photo is a typical example.

Being an arboretum, it was full of obscure trees, and they don’t come stranger than this one. Remember a sci-fi book called “Day of the Triffids”? The trunk on the right just above the hedge line looks like it might be waving to us. And are those two discs its eyes?

Odd trees, now big trees. It’s 150 years old and has grown to well over 100 feet tall. The discs on the trunk are identification data (I bet you guessed they weren't really eyes), but we didn’t remember to note down the details. It’s not clear who is propping who up between Jane and the tree.

We ate our sarnies in this shelter overlooking the sea. The islands seemed to go on forever into the distance, getting hazier and hazier. A perfect spot, we all agreed.

After lunch we descended the steps at the side of the shelter into a terraced, overgrown garden. A real suntrap, and just the sort of place that would attract snakes. Not that we considered such a possibility- until I nearly stepped on one: a large brown snake basking at the edge of the path. It rapidly shot off into the undergrowth, and has defied our efforts since to ID it. We have internet access so were able to discover that there are 16 species of snake in Croatia, some with sub-species, in the case of the grass snake, 8 sub-species. Paul is quick off the mark with his camera, and got the tail before the creature disappeared. So, what do you think it was? Post answers on the blog. Winner gets a Monty Python or Black Adder DVD.

Walking on a little more carefully through the rest of the garden, we came to the mill, a rather dilapidated structure full of old equipment to do with milling, and pressing grapes and olives. It was covered in dust, bits of wood and rubble, looking more like a medieval torture chamber that had laid undiscovered in some castle dungeon for centuries.

The formal features of other great estate gardens were there too: the herb garden, roses and box hedges, a fountain with classical statues, and so on. The water feature shows a glum looking Neptune with trident, presiding over a goldfish pool, flanked by female aides. It’s getting him down that in all these years he’s not managed to spear a single goldfish.

The gardens were well worth searching out. There was no sign from the main road and then no indication where the entrance was on the tiny perimeter road we found after passing through a campsite. Trsteno Gardens website is all about praising its own horticultural achievements, so perhaps the management doesn’t see direction signs as part of the job, which is ironic because the tree descriptions (the discs in the photos) were clear and comprehensive!