Game of Thrones in Dubrovnik — King's Landing Filming Locations
Dubrovnik served as the primary filming location for King's Landing in HBO's Game of Thrones (Seasons 1-8, 2011-2019), with more than 50 specific locations in and around the Old Town used across 63 episodes. The Dubrovnik Tourism Board estimates that Game of Thrones contributed to a 40 percent increase in visitor numbers in the years after the first season aired.
- 1
Fort Lovrijenac — the Red Keep
Fort Lovrijenac (the 11th-century fortress on the 37-metre limestone rock immediately west of the Pile Gate, €35 entry if purchased separately or included in the city walls ticket, the fortress motto inscribed above the gate: NON BENE PRO TOTO LIBERTAS VENDITUR AURO — 'Freedom is not to be sold for all the gold in the world', the Ragusan Republic's founding principle) was used extensively in the show as the Red Keep's exterior and the Blackwater Bay battle sequences. The fortress interior (the three-courtyard system at three different heights, the 12-metre-thick seaward walls visible from inside, the highest courtyard platform at 37m with the view of the Old Town walls and the Adriatic in both directions) and the real history (the fortress built in response to a Venetian threat in 1018, the Ragusans constructing it in 3 months by working in shifts day and night to prevent Venice from establishing a position at this strategic point) are the context the show ignores.
- 2
Minceta Tower — the House of the Undying
The Minčeta Tower (the highest point on the northern city walls, the massive circular tower built by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo in 1461 and completed by Juraj Dalmatinac, the same architect who designed the Cathedral of Sibenik, the tower visible from the walls walk as the dominant profile of the northern fortification) appeared in Game of Thrones as the exterior of the House of the Undying in Qarth (the season 2 sequence where Daenerys enters to reclaim her dragons). The tower's external staircase (the approach to the top of the Minčeta from within the walls walk, the most strenuous climb on the walls circuit — 72 steps from the wall level to the top of the tower) and the view from the summit (the most complete aerial view of the Old Town available, the red tile rooftops entirely visible in a single panorama) are the real attractions independent of the show connection.
- 3
Trsteno Arboretum — the Red Keep Gardens
Trsteno Arboretum (18km northwest of Dubrovnik, accessible by bus 12 or 15 from the Pile Gate bus stop in 25 minutes, Croatia's oldest arboretum, founded 1494 by the Ragusan noble Gucetic family, now managed by the Croatian Academy of Sciences, €5 adults, daily 8am-8pm May-September) appeared in Game of Thrones as the gardens of the Red Keep where Sansa Stark walks with Margaery Tyrell and the High Sparrow. The two 500-year-old plane trees (the Oriental plane, Platanus orientalis, specimens 6 metres in circumference at the base, the largest trees in Croatia and among the largest in Europe) and the 16th-century Neptune fountain (the baroque sea-god in the central pool of the formal garden) are the arboretum's defining elements — the Game of Thrones connection brought the arboretum's visitor numbers from 20,000 to 80,000 per year.
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Gradac Park and the Lovrijenac Cliff — the Blackwater Bay Cliffs
Gradac Park (the public park on the clifftop immediately west of the Old Town, accessible via the path above the Pile Gate or by the steps from the beach below Fort Lovrijenac, free access, the most elevated western viewpoint of the Old Town) and the beach below Fort Lovrijenac (the small beach at the base of the Lovrijenac cliff, accessible by walking north from the Pile Gate for 10 minutes, the beach shaded for most of the day but the position giving the closest sea-level view of the fortress) served as the Blackwater Bay exterior sequences. The rock platform at the base of the Lovrijenac cliff (accessible at low tide by scrambling from the beach, the view looking up at the fortress from immediately below at 30m altitude) is the most dramatically proportioned Game of Thrones photography position in Dubrovnik.
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Pile Gate and Stradun — the King's Landing Streets
The Pile Gate (the western entrance to the Old Town, the stone bridge over the Old Town moat now dry, the outer gate with the statue of St Blaise above the arch built in 1537, the inner gate built in 1460) and the Stradun (the main street of the Old Town, used as the King's Landing street scenes in the dragon attack sequences of Season 8 before the CGI destruction was added) are the most-visited Game of Thrones locations in Dubrovnik simply because they are the most used spaces in the Old Town. The Game of Thrones guided tours (departing the Pile Gate hourly in summer season, €30-45 per person for a 2-hour walking tour, 6-12 different operators identifiable by their Game of Thrones branded vests) are the most commercial expression of the show tourism; the free alternative is the official HBO filming location map available at the Dubrovnik Tourist Board office at Brsalje 5.
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Dubrovnik Cable Car and Mount Srd — the Filming Location for All Aerial Shots
The Dubrovnik Cable Car (the gondola system ascending from Ulica kralja Petra Kresimira IV beside the Ploce Gate to the summit of Mount Srd at 412m, operating daily 9am-midnight in summer, €26 return, the journey taking 4 minutes, the summer restaurant at the summit operating 9am-11pm) provides access to the position used for all aerial establishing shots in Game of Thrones: the Panorama Restaurant terrace (the 360-degree view from the summit of Mount Srd, the Old Town directly below with the island of Lokrum immediately southeast, the Elafiti islands on the horizon, the Peljesac peninsula to the north, the Cavtat peninsula to the south — the fullest possible survey of the Dubrovnik coast). The Homeland War Museum (Domovinski Rat, on the cable car summit, the documentation of the 1991-1992 siege of Dubrovnik by the Yugoslav People's Army, the war that killed 114 civilians and damaged 70 percent of buildings inside the Old Town, the context that the Game of Thrones tourist industry systematically ignores, free entry, daily 9am-9pm) is the essential counterpoint.