Arboretum Opeka

Arboretum Opeka is a botanical tree collection set within the castle grounds of Opeka near Vinica in Croatia's Varaždin County. Laid out around 1860 as part of the estate's landscaping, it is one of the oldest and most species-rich park collections in Croatia, assembled by the noble family who owned the estate and brought in exotic trees from across Europe and beyond. The arboretum today holds several hundred woody species — rare conifers, North American oaks, and East Asian ornamental trees among them — spread across a quiet, largely uncrowded landscape. It rewards a slow, unhurried walk through mature tree canopy with a strong sense of 19th-century estate culture.