It is native to southeast Europe and southwest Asia, from southern Italy east across the southern Balkans (Croatia, Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece) to western Turkey, growing at low to moderate altitudes (up to 1,550 metres or 5,090 feet in the south of the range in southwestern Turkey), in dry areas.

[3][4][5] Quercus trojana is a small to medium-sized tree reaching 10–20 metres (33–66 feet) tall, late deciduous to semi-evergreen, with glossy green to grey-green leaves 3–10 centimetres (1+1⁄4–4 inches) long and 1.5–4 cm broad with a coarsely serrated margin with sharply pointed teeth.

[6][7] Fossils of Quercus trojana have been described from the fossil flora of Kızılcahamam district in Turkey, which is of early Pliocene age.

[8] It is grown as an ornamental tree in Britain, Belgium, Spain, and elsewhere, and has proved very tolerant of both drought and winter cold.

[7] A semi-fastigiate cultivar 'Iturraran Trinkoa' has been selected at the Iturraran Botanical Garden in the Basque region of Spain.