Posted by Enough serious politics and bad life philosophy for now. Being big Game of Thrones fans, my wife and I decided to go to Croatia to go visit famous filming sites for the show. I had originally intended to go to Dubrovnik and Split back in 1992 during my youth and first trip to Europe but found myself making a huge detour around the former Yugoslavia after visiting Istanbul, Turkey and Sophia, Bulgaria, due to the civil war. In the intervening 25 years, despite having gone back to Europe several hundred times (mostly on business but also to study in 1993-94), I have never found myself back down to the Dalmatian coast (the closest has been a vacation to Greece in 2010 and Italy in 2015). But we could not resist the lure of Game of Thrones (GoT) any longer. Thus, I offer you our great 2017 GoT tour of Dubrovnik and Split.
We start our tour in a GoT souvenir shop in Dubrovnik near the little used Buza or North Gate (one of three gates to the old walled city of Dubrovnik) where a replica of the Iron Throne is available for us to take photos on. This photo is a reconstruction of the cover and promotional poster for GoT Season 1 with Eddard Stark on the Iron Throne even though he never sat on it during the show as he was only Lord of Winterfell and the hand of the king.
Leaving the city via the Eastern or Pile Gate, we quickly arrive to Pile Bay which is very tiny but used for filming many scenes for Blackwater Bay at King’s Landing. In Season 2 Episode 1, on King Joffrey’s orders, Gold Cloaks raid homes in King’s Landing to find and kill all of Robert Baratheon’s bastard children. In reality these door and “homes” are long abandoned and you can’t actually get to them without climbing down the rocks.
Season 2, Episode 6. Also in Pile Bay but close to the walled city, we find the pebble beach where the Lannisters send their daughter Myrcella to Dorne. During the summer, this beach is covered by colourful kayaks for tourists. This beach is also where Jamie brings Myrcella’s body back to King’s Landing in Season 6, Episode 1 and where Cersei greets meets him.
Season 3, Episode 1. The jetty at Pile Bay (pier at Blackwater Bay). Shae plays a guessing game with Sansa about where the boats are going.
Season 3, Episode 1. Pile Bay (Blackwater Bay). Littlefinger meets Sansa on the same jetty to discuss how he will get her out of King’s Landing.
Walking up the cliff where the doors are, we arrive at Fort Lovrijenac (the Red Keep, which is the king’s residence in the capital of King’s Landing). Buying a ticket for the wall of Dubrovnik also includes entrance to the Fort so don’t double pay for entrance. Season 2, Episode 1 Littlefinger meets with Cersei and discuss finding Arya Stark. Littlefinger tries to subtly threaten Cersei by alluding to the fact that he knows about the incestuous relationship between her and her brother Jamie and tells her that, “knowledge is power”. Cersei not so subtly responds by having her guards grab him and ordering them to “cut his throat” before stopping them “oh wait, I’ve changed my mind, let him go”. She leaves him telling him “power… is power”.
Season 2, Episode 1. Fort Lovrijenac (the Red Keep). King Joffrey Baratheon presides over his nameday tournament. Lots of CGI behind him in the photo, including the Red Keep, that doesn’t exist in real life.
Season 2, Episode 1. Fort Lovrijenac (the Red Keep). King Joffrey’s Nameday tournament where the Sandor Clegane (The Hound) makes short-work of his first competitor then Ser Dontos Hollard arrives drunk and is ordered to be drowned in wine until he is saved by Sansa who suggests that they make him a court jester instead.
Heading back to the walled city, we arrive at the Pile Gate which acts as the main gate leading to King’s Landing in Season 3, Episode 10 where Jamie arrives in King’s Landing to visit his sister Cersei.
Season 2, Episode 6. Pile Gate (King’s Landing). After the Lannisters send Mrycella off to Dorne they return to King’s Landing. An angry mob throws fruit at King Joffrey and begins a riot. Sansa runs off to one of the doors at the end of the corridor (which leads to a small park where they put Christmas decorations up during the winter festival) to escape mob only to be chased down by men who attempt to rape her until she is saved by The Hound.
Right after the Pile Gate you go up the hill to the right to the Ethnographic Museum. The entrance is used for exterior shots for Littlefinger’s brothel. In Season 4, Episode 1, Tyrion Lannister speaks to Oberyn Martell outside where he says he wants revenge for the murder of his niece Rhaenys, his nephew Aegon, and the rape and murder of his sister Elia in the sack of King’s Landing by the Lannister troops during the siege of King’s Landing. In Season 5, Episode 3, Lancel Lannister and the Sparrows humiliates the High Septon by making him walk naked through the streets outside the brothel and proclaim him a sinner.
We then walk down to the other side of the walled city to Gundulic Square and St. Ignatius Church to the famous Jesuit staircases which is the location of numerous scenes involving the entrance to the Great Sept of Baelor. First up, looking down from top of the steps, in Season 5, Episode 10, Cersei makes her infamous naked walk of shame through throngs of CGI people.
In Season 5, Episode 1, Jesuit Steps (Great Sept of Baelor), Cersei arrives for the funeral of her father Tywin Lannister, passing the mourners before entering the Great Sept. The CGI of the Great Sept is a little more impressive than the broken down and semi-ruined Gundulic Square and very unremarkable St. Ignatius Church.
The stairs also appear in Season 5 Episode 3 when Cersei rides up for Margaeryès wedding and again in Episode 4 when Tommen tries to see the High Sparrow but is denied entry.
Walking down the steps and past the Cathedral-Treasury we quickly arrive the City Hall and Cultural History Museum (Rector’s Palace). This small strip becomes the Great City of Qarth (the Greatest City that Ever Was or Will Be), specifically the Spice King’s Palace. In Season 2, Episode 6, Daenerys meets the Spice King in his palace (Rector’s Palace) in an attempt to get ships to cross the Narrow Sea to retake Westeros. There is an entrance fee for the Rector’s Palace although it was closed when we were there for three months for renovations. But sneaking a picture through the doorway, you can clearly see the same pillars and staircase that are shown in the GoT scene.
Heading to to Ploce Gate, we walk up St. Dominic Street, where in Season 2, Episode 5, Tyrion and Bronn are walking through the streets in King’s Landing and witness a protest speech against King Joffy with the speaker standing on a circular staircase.
At the bridge leading to Ploce Gate (Western Gate), we find a scene from Season 5, Episode 10. The Ploce Gate acts as the entrance to the Red Keep when Cersei returns after her naked walk of atonement and is greeted by Qyburn and The Mountain.
Normally, you would take a ferry from the nearby pier to Lokrum Island to see the garden party scenes in Qarth from Season 2, Episode 5, but it whole island is closed from Nov-Apr. Instead, at the Ploce Gate, you can gain entrance to the City Walls (for a fee) or at the other side at the Pile Gate. Heading up along the wall to the highest point in the Northeast corner, you arrive at Minecta Tower which is used as House of the Undying (where the warlocks who stole Daenerys’ dragons live). Season 2, Episode 10, Daenerys looks for an entrance to the tower to recover her dragons
Season 2, Episode 10, after Daenerys disappears into the tower, Jorah tries to find where she went to by repeatedly circling the tower.
Going counterclockwise around the wall, you come to the Practice Field which is to the right and next to the Pile Gate. In Season 4, Episode 7 Cersei chooses The Mountain as her champion in Tyrion’s trial by combat. In Season 5, Episode 4, it is also where Loras is arrested by the Faith Militant. Access to this field is not public as it looks very scruffy and run down.
Continuing counterclockwise, you arrive at Bokar Fortress in the Southeast corner of the city. Season 2, Episode 8. Bokar Fortress (Walls of King’s Landing) Tyrion and Lord Varys walk around the wall discussing war. looking west, we can see the CGI Red Keep in the background that doesn’t exist in real life and additional fortifications to make it look more impressive.
In the same scene looking east, we can see the real Fort Lovrijenac in the background but CGI’d to look more impressive as if were attached to the rest of the city (Pile Bay is actually between these two points).
The same shot is used in Season 7, Episode 1 with Cersei and Jaime watching the Iron Fleet arriving coming in from the same spot. You Actually can’t enter to Bokar Fortress as both shots are clearly made from down below in the round area of the Bokar Fortress by the old cannon.
There are some other smaller GoT film sites nearby like the Trsteno Arboretum which doubles as many of the Red Keep Gardens and is a 30 minute bus trip away. The bridge that Ser Dontos helps Sansa get on a boat to get out of King’s Landing in Season 4, Episode 3 is there. So is the beach where Bronn teaches Jaimie to fight with his left hand in Season 4, Episode 4. But mostly, it’s all the garden scenes where Margaery Tyrell and her Grandmother Olenna Tyrell spend most of their time walking around and plotting while they are at King’s Landing. The Hotel Belvedere is an abandoned luxury hotel that was destroyed in the 1991 civil war and where the duel between Oberyn Martell and The Mountain in Season 4, Episode 8 was filmed. Villa Sheherezade is a 10 minute walk from the Ploce Gate but is an exclusive rental so no public access but it is where the exterior shots of Illryo’s mansion in Pentos were filmed. Gradac Park is a 10 minute walk west of Fort Lovrijenac and is where King Joffrey’s “Purple Wedding” was filmed in Season 4, Episode 2.
We then hopped on a bus for a four hour ride from Dubrovnik to the city of Split which is Croatia’s second largest city. The road passes through Bosnia so be prepared for a quick border check going in and out of the tiny little strip of land that is Bosnia’s only coastal access point. You can also get there by ferry that normally stops at some of the nicer islands along the way but pretty much all ferry services shut down at the end of October and only start up in April. While transportation may be a problem, the advantage of going to Croatia in November-February is that you are pretty much guaranteed a restaurant seat and, as you can see from the photos, there is virtually no tourists in sight. According to locals, it’s a madhouse during the summer as Europeans throng to the beaches on the Dalmatian coast and cruise ships run non-stop. While you can’t swim in the winter, the cooler weather may actually be better for walking around all these walls and streets as it is apparently extremely hot and sunny in the summer.
Our first stop in Split is a 20 minute and extremely cheap city bus trip from old city that goes way up the mountain to the Klis Fortress which becomes the City of Meereen. Season 4, Episode 4, freed slaves line the road to cheer the parade of Daenerys over the Masters. Lots of CGI here to make the city look huge including the Great Pyramid of Meereen.
In the same Season 4, Episode 4, Daenerys has the Masters crucified along the road as punishment for their doing the same to slaves to warn off Daenerys earlier when she arrived at Meereen. You can see the CGI city below which is just a bunch of farmer fields and a highway in reality.
Season 4, Episode 4. Klis Fortress (Meereen). More of freed slaves lining the road to cheer the parade of Daenerys over the Masters as the procession winds its way up the cliff.
Here’s another shot of freed slaves from that episode watching the procession go by.
Finally a close up of Daenerys as she walks up the steps. They built a new wooden platform for her to stand on where she makes her speech (which is no longer there now). But notice in this shot the broken bit of wall on the left which is identical to the one in the show.
Lest you think that everything in Klis is from that one scene, in Season 4, Episode 10, Tyrion and Varys walk through the streets of Meereen discussing what to do. They finally end up watching Jorah and Dario ride off to find Daenerys after she is captured by the Dothraki.
Back in the City of Split, in the Old Town (specifically Diocletian’s Palace), many of the street scenes as well as the underground scenes were filmed there. First up, in Season 4, Episode 4. Cellars of the Diocletian Palace in Split (Slave Pits of Meereen). Greyworm and some Unsullied sneak into the catecombs and convinces the slaves to revolt in support of Daenerys. This is the exact same room that all the dragon shots are made later on.
Season 4, Episode 4. Streets of Diocletian Palace in Split (Streets of Meereen). Slaves revolt and take to the street. They find a master with his guards, chase him down, surround him and kill him.
Season 5, Episode 1. Cellars of the Diocletian Palace in Split (Dragons Den in Catecombs of Meereen). HBO had to build these fake steps in this spot for Daenerys to walk down as if she is entering from the window.
Season 5, Episode 1. Cellars of the Diocletian Palace in Split (Dragons Den in Catecombs of Meereen). Daenerys visits her dragons who are very unhappy about being imprisoned in the catecombs under Meereen. You can see the fake steps used in the background.
I’ll end this post with Season 5, Episode 5. Cellars of the Diocletian Palace in Split (Dragons Den in Catecombs of Meereen). As a warning and retribution to the Masters for their setting the Son’s of the Harpy to kill the Unsullied and severely injuring Greyworm. Daenerys brings the Masters down into her dragons den where one is burned and eaten before the others as an example.
There are some other sites that apparently the paid tours go to like a small village with an ancient water wheel (still operational) that Missandei (Daenery’s translator) takes a bath and is spotted naked by Greyworm. There is also a rock quarry that some shots are filmed at but I’m not a big fan of expensive tours and would rather eat some nice (and famous) roast lamb in the village near Klis or some great fresh seafood from the Adriatic sea than some crappy “authentic” Dalmatian meal on the package tour. But that’s just me… I mean, there’s a lot of other history and culture to see and experience in these great cities than just Game of Thrones sites.
