Historic olive grove
Basic information
Name: Arboretum Trsteno Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Total area of the Arboretum: 25.61 ha
Landscape area: Historic olive grove
Total area of the olive grove: 1.53 ha
Number of old varieties in the olive grove: 15
HISTORIC OLIVE GROVES IN THE ARBORETUM
On the land estate in Trsteno, olives have been planted since the 16th century, but as few individual trees. Gučetić family bought olive oil for eating and as fuel for light. The first record found so far about the oil obtained, and the serfs who grew olives in Trsteno, dates from 1717. During the 18th century, olive groves were intensively expanded and olives became the dominant crop.
The extent to which olive groves were enlarged at that time is shown by a record from 1735, when Gučetić planted 1,200 young olive trees in Trsteno in May. The gradual growth of planted olive trees is reflected in increasing oil yields during the 18th century.
During the first half of the 19th century, Gučetić’s estate reached its maximum capacity and continued to be cultivated by the largest recorded number of serfs to be deployed on that land. The lands were planted mostly with olives and vines. In Trsteno, 1,500 olive trees were grown privately and 5,900 olive trees were grown in the fields given to the serfs for cultivation. At that time, olives and vines were the basic crops in Dubrovnik and proved to be the only crop productive enough for export.
The increase in olive growing on the property was accompanied by the need for increased processing and additional outbuildings (olive mills with magazine) were being built. Already, during and after the First World War, remote olive groves began to be in s a state of neglect, in which natural vegetation rapidly dominated. After the Second World War, when the rest of Gučetić’s land estate was declared an Arboretum, protected by law and handed over to the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the existing olive groves continue to be cultivated and used.
RESTORATION OF THE HISTORIC OLIVE GROVES
In the great summer fire of 2000, when two thirds of the entire area of the Arboretum burned down, a small area of the old olive grove was preserved. In 2002, this surviving part became the core of the restoration of the historic olive grove. In the preserved part, 7 old olive varieties were catalogued, out of the 15 recorded for the Dubrovnik littoral. Old trees were restored by pruning and fertilizing, and burned by thinning shoots and growing young trees. In parallel with the grafting and cultivation of seedlings, the remaining old varieties of the Dubrovnik littoral were introduced.
Since 2005 the renovated olive grove ( 15,370 m2) brings fruit and characteristically high quality oil. About 200 olive trees are grown in this area, which includes 15 varieties: Oblica, Mezanica, Bjelica, Uljarica, Mrčakinja, Dužica, Jeruzalemka, Kosmača, Zuzorka, Grozdača, Velika Lastovka, Piculja, Murgulja, Žabarka and Želuldarica.
The natural regeneration of vegetation on the burned areas of the Arboretum, which before the fire were mostly under the forest of Aleppo pine and cypress, support surprisingly large numbers of restored olives. This clearly demonstrates that the entire area, except the narrower coastal belt, was terraced and cultivated as an olive grove, which was undoubtedly mixed with a culture of carob, almonds and figs.
The goal of the restoration of the historic olive grove with the creation of a collection of indigenous varieties has a threefold purpose: preservation of cultural and ethnological heritage, preservation of the gene pool, ie indigenous, agricultural biodiversity and, finally, the inclusion of the facility within the local tourist industry.
