Arboretum Lisičine- the flower discovery of rhododendrons at the mountain Papuk

08.04.2019.

Did you ever hear for arboretum? Have you ever been in one? Arboretum Lisičine near Voćin is one of the youngest one in Croatia but the richest with plants and trees. There are three arboretums in Croatia: Trsteno near Dubrovnik (from 1492.), Arboretum Opeka near Varaždin and Lisičine in Slavonia. The middle of May is the time when rhododendrons in Lisičine appear so we went like this. It took us nearly one hour from Požega to reach Voćin and village Lisičine. It’s interesting that though close to the road, the arboretum is still at Papuk.

What to see

Rhododendrons in serene colours, that was the password that took us to visit arboretum Lisičine. Simply wonderful, this paradise for photographies.

After just staying in their beauty, we went into further discoveries. Chinese maple, the long beans looking like carrob, chestnut… are just some of them. There are plenty of unusual trees (look the coincidence: arboretum is a collection of trees and shrubs) and specially confierus.

From the establishment in 1963. the arboretum was very rich with the variety of trees and bushes but in 1991. during the patrotic war received the huge damage. This included the fence that allowed wild animals to move. Back into beginnings the arboretum had around 2500 species but it reduced to 500 due to the reasons above mentioned. Arboretum was renewed in 2013. with the help EU projects that enabled to arrange the area with benches and arbors and title the plants.

Just on the large meadow between the meaningful stones and trees one large arbor found its place and it became our picknick place. Rhododendrons gave us faith and courage, gave us fantasy and colours. But it was time to discover japanese imperial oak, chinese oak, transcaucasian birch, japanese magnolia and the others signed like this on board. One flower we named banana flower because of its shape and the distinguishing yellow colour. There is even one grand tree with the hole so the person can easily stand. The trees with holes are always funny. Do you also like to observe the shapes of trees?

Outside the entrance stands the building with the viewpoint, ruined today and still not recovered.

On the way back we stopped at the rocks Rupnica near Voćin, stepwise rocks visually very astonishing. These volcanic rocks date back probably millions years ago. Now they are specially protected area of nature, a monument only nature can make. Something like this can be found in Chech Republic, New Zealand and National park Yellowstone. We’re not even aware of the historic meaning of our surroundings.

This was not are only stop. We stopped at town Voćin and at Zvečevo lake. At Voćin in their main park we saw a swimming pool, already abandonded. Zvečevo was also once a nice and big hotel with lots of content for the associated workers, settled in the untouched nature. Unfortunalety today remains also ruins. Lake is still in very good function.

All in all

We had a very good day in nature, fragnant and unusual seeing very many things. Without pressure we had an opportunity to discover the other side of Papuk and to dwell in the history. Arboretum is the relaxing kind of trip so don’t hesitate to discover one, to discover this enriching experience.