The Maribor vine that has been fruiting for four centuries

A žametovka over 400 years old

The vine is a žametovka, a tough native variety also known as modra kavčina. According to the house that looks after it, it was planted in the late 1500s in front of a home on the Drava’s left bank that formed part of the town wall. Its officially recognised age is more than 400 years, and in 2004 it entered Guinness World Records as the oldest vine in the world. The earliest surviving picture of it dates from 1657.

The official websites sometimes say more than 450 years. I’ll stick with the recognised figure of 400, which is impressive enough.

Inside the Oldest Vine House: shop, tastings, museum

The house is now a modern wine shop with over 200 labels from 50 Styrian producers, the largest selection from the region under one roof. There are guided tastings of three or five wines with local snacks, one of fruit brandies, a 35-metre mosaic telling the story of Maribor and the Drava, and a virtual reality experience that takes you through the city’s life since 1570. No other plant in the world has its own museum, according to the tourist board, and it even has its own anthem.

How to see it and when to go

I’d see it at the end of a walk through Lent, with a tasting inside and dinner on the riverbank afterwards. If you like wine, three wine roads lead from here into the Maribor countryside, one of them to the heart-shaped road at Špičnik. And for more on the country’s grapes and regions, see my guide to Slovenian wine.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Maribor before prices climb.

How did it survive so long?

What fascinates me is the list of disasters it has come through. It was planted in the middle of an Ottoman siege, with fighting right beside the house. It survived several fires in the days of straw roofs. Around 1870 phylloxera destroyed Europe’s vineyards, but its roots go deep beneath the river gravel, where the pest couldn’t live. During the Second World War Maribor was hit by 29 bombing raids and more than 15,000 bombs, and the house next door was damaged.

The last scare came in 1963, when a dam on the Drava raised the water by three metres. The roots suffered and the vine began to wither. In the 1980s a team of specialists stopped it being removed and the house being demolished. Today the city’s own vinedresser tends it, and cuttings are presented abroad as diplomatic gifts.

Celebrations around the vine

The vine sets the rhythm of Maribor’s calendar. During Festival Lent, from 26 June to 4 July 2026, the house ran its Vinsko LENTanje wine programme. The Oldest Grapevine Festival was held from 25 to 27 September, and St Martin’s Day falls on 11 November 2026, which the tourist board bills as the biggest one-day St Martin’s celebration in Slovenia. There’s also a ceremonial pruning and a ceremonial harvest.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Oldest vine in the world and choose by the reviews.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Maribor before prices climb.