Game of thrones has taken the world by storm since 2010, and has increased tourism and foot traffic in the shows filming destinations, especially Dubrovnik. Almost everyone I know has at least heard of Game of Thrones, if they aren’t already obsessed with it. Game of Thrones is a fictional drama series on HBO, telling the stories of several families fighting for the Iron Throne, the throne that will allow them to have power over the other seven kingdoms on the continent of Westeros.
Brittany and my’s guide, Davor, showed us around the city and where many scenes of Game of Thrones were shot. Davor worked as a member of set security during the shooting of the early seasons of Game of Thrones (according to him, at least-he may have been just trying to turn on the charm, as tour guides tend to do).
A lot of the locals in Croatia do not care for Game of Thrones. Although it does increase tourism, many of the people visiting Croatia for GoT sightseeing do not care much for the actual country and its own story. It is estimated that Dubrovnik's tourism has increased roughly 40% since its premier, yet up to 70% of the locals have not seen the show. Davor said he enjoyed giving the tours because it gave him someone to talk to about the show, because none of his other friends or family watched it. The production crews at HBO in Dubrovnik have also apparently had issues with respecting the town and its history; such as closing the main gates to Old Town for the first time in over 200 years to shoot a scene, and spray painting the gravel in the city park red in order to make it look like a red carpet.
So many scenes are filmed in Dubrovnik, both in and out of the Old Town, but they aren’t always recognizable. While The Old Town is one of the perfect spots to film the show, HBO still uses CGI to adjust the landscape to either make it appear more grand and majestic or fit the story line better. I've included pictures of the real life location the scene was shot along with a screenshot of the scene, for comparison.
In the scenes where Cersei’s daughter, Myrcella, gets sent to Dorne for her safety, and then “returns home”, production utilized a beach on the outskirts of the Old Town walls where a kayaking business resides. Unless pointed out, you probably wouldn’t be able to see through the kayaks and see the set behind them.
Numerous other scenes were also shot from that same location, each from a different angle, but all from the same small stone pier. Any scene in the show that includes Blackwater Bay was shot in this location. However, the many shots and angles used make Blackwater Bay seem much larger than the filming location used. In reality, you could stand in a single location on that pier, do a 360 turn, and see over a dozen locations in the show that are supposed to be far from each other.
Davor was nice enough to take plenty of pictures for us, even setting us up to recreate this shot from season 1 with Sansa and Littlefinger.
Next, Davor took us up to Fort Lovrijenac, which in the show is used for interior shots of the Red Keep. Famous scenes such as Cersei and Littlefinger’s dialogue of “knowledge is power vs. power is power”, Joffrey's name day ceremony, and Cersei’s painting of a map of Westeros all took place in this fort. Currently, the fort is being used as a stage for a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; it's neat to see such a piece of history still so actively used for things other than a walk-able museum.
Cersei confronts Littlefinger
"knowledge is power vs. power is power"
Sansa running from certain death during a riot
Joffrey's name-day ceremony
Dubrovnik has one park close to downtown, which is where HBO decided to film one Purple Wedding. While it made for a beautiful set, this was one of the scenarios when the locals weren’t happy with the production team. The park is one of the only places the locals can go to take a stroll away from the hubbub of downtown, but production closed the park to the public for multiple days. They also spray painted the gravel to make it look like a red carpet, rather than just putting down an actual carpet, and you can still find red painted gravel in the park.
We finally got into the Old Town, where almost every street had been featured in a scene of Game of Thrones. As soon as you walk in the gate, you are in a scene of one of the early seasons of the show; the rest of the walk around Old Town is just the same. The most famous scenes to take place in Old Town are the ones for Cersei's Walk of Shame, when she was forced to walk naked through King's Landing as a way of paying for her sins.
The starting point of Cersei's walk of shame
Walk of Shame from her perspective
The ending point of her Walk of Shame once she reaches the Red Keep.
This archway was a popular filming location for scenes including Oberyn Tyrell in season 4
We ended the tour with a stop in the official Game of Thrones gift shop, where we were able to take our picture on the Iron Throne before saying goodbye to our guide.
For a show that is so popular and global, I find it interesting how the people closest to it don't care to be involved. When searching for extras, Game of Thrones often had to bring in actors from other countries because no locals wanted to be involved or associated with production. This just shows how even something so universally popular and powerful as Game of Thrones doesn't hold power or importance over those you would think care the most about it. I would expect to hear pride when Croatians speak of their country being so beautiful it is used for a majority of filming locations in one of the most popular shows in the world. The reality of it, though, is they are tired of people only caring about their country because of this show. When locals would ask me why I was visiting and I would answer that I've wanted to visit Croatia since middle school, before Game of Thrones even existed, their faces would light up. Any conversation I held with them about their country that didn't involve the show was so nice for them, and you could tell just from their faces. As much of a Game of Thrones fan as I am, I understand that the show isn't everything in Croatia, and they have so much more to offer.