A real hidden gem, Brsečine is small cove in the south of Dalmatia, around 25km from Dubrovnik. Tranquil and charming, its beach is well worth uncovering. Few people know it, and possibly fewer still know that Brsečine is also home of an underwater archaeological site.
It would be easy to overlook the village completely as you speed through from Dubrovnik towards Croatia’s second city, Split. Home of around 100 people, it’s an unassuming place with a couple of small churches, but what it lacks in facilities it more than makes up for with some beautiful sea views which become all the more apparent as you head further into this village in the hills. Its most famous building is the former home of noted beauty and poetess, Cvijeta Zuzorić, whose work in Italian, Croatian and Latin was highly regarded in the 16th and 17th centuries. In a time of great inequality, she was regarded as one of the first feminists of Dubrovnik, and an art pavilion in Belgrade now bears her name as a tribute.
Another area of great natural beauty lies a little further down the coast in the direction of Dubrovnik, in the form of the Trsteno Arboretum. If it starts to look familiar, it may be because it has been used as a filming location in Game of Thrones, but its real history is just as fascinating anything television could conjure up. Two Oriental Plane trees, believed to be more than 500 years old, stand on the Trsteno marketplace and survived attacks during the Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s and more recent forest fires. Stretching right down to the edge of the Adriatic, with a stunning view thereof, the arboretum is one not to miss.
