Every Game of Thrones Filming Location in Dubrovnik — A Local's Map

I've been doing Game of Thrones tours in Dubrovnik since 2013 — basically since before it was cool to say you'd been to King's Landing. Back then, maybe five or six people would show up. Now we get groups from every corner of the planet, every single day, and the questions are always the same: where exactly did they film that scene?

Fair enough. So here's the honest, no-fluff breakdown of every major filming location in Dubrovnik. Not from a fan wiki — from someone who lives here and has walked these streets thousands of times.

Pile Gate — The Entrance to King's Landing

Let's start where the show starts: the main gate. In the series, characters enter King's Landing through a big arched gate, and that's Pile Gate. It's the western entrance to Dubrovnik's Old Town and the first thing most tourists see anyway. The production crew made surprisingly few changes here — the stonework already looked like a fantasy set. They mostly added banners, a few props, and digitally extended the walls.

What people miss: if you look to the left just before you walk through, there's a small drawbridge over a dry moat. That's original 15th-century stuff. The show used the angle from just inside the gate looking out, which is why it looks wider on screen than you'd expect.

Fort Lovrijenac — The Red Keep

This is the big one. Fort Lovrijenac sits on a cliff just outside the western wall, and it's been Dubrovnik's most dramatic landmark for about a thousand years. HBO chose it as the exterior and courtyard of the Red Keep, and once you see it in person you understand why. The thing dominates the skyline.

They filmed Joffrey's nameday tournament here, and several of the terrace conversations between Tyrion, Cersei, and Littlefinger. The courtyard inside is surprisingly small — TV magic made it look enormous. There's a separate entrance fee to get in (about €15), but it's worth it even without the GoT connection. The views of the Old Town from the top wall are some of the best in Croatia.

Jesuit Stairs — The Walk of Shame

If there's one scene everybody remembers, it's Cersei's walk. Those stairs are the Jesuit Stairs (locals call them Jezuitske stube), and they connect the main street Stradun to the Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius at the top. They filmed the entire walk of shame sequence here in October 2014, and it basically shut down the southeastern part of the Old Town for days.

People always ask if Lena Headey actually walked naked. She didn't — they used a body double and digitally composited her face. But they did shoot the scene repeatedly, from every possible angle, early in the morning to manage the light. The stairs get direct sun pretty late in the day, so they needed the dawn glow for continuity.

Pro tip: visit early morning or late afternoon to get a photo without a hundred other people on the steps. Midday in summer is a zoo.

St. Dominic Street — The Market & City Streets

A lot of the street-level King's Landing scenes — the markets, the crowds, the alleys where characters get ambushed — were filmed on and around St. Dominic Street, which runs from Ploče Gate toward the Dominican Monastery. It's narrower and less polished than Stradun, which is exactly why the production crew liked it. It felt more "lived in."

They also used the Ethnographic Museum's doorway for one of Littlefinger's brothel entrances, which the museum staff apparently found hilarious.

The Old Port — Blackwater Bay

Dubrovnik's Old Port became Blackwater Bay in the show. It's where Myrcella was sent off to Dorne (that heartbreaking pier scene), where Sansa nearly escaped by boat, and the backdrop for the Battle of the Blackwater. Obviously, they added the massive ships, wildfire explosions, and flaming wreckage digitally — the real port is calm, full of kayaks and small tourist boats.

But the stone walls and the general shape of the harbor? That's all real. When you stand at the eastern edge and look back toward the city walls, you can see exactly the angle they used for the wide shots of the battle.

Minčeta Tower — The House of the Undying

This is one that surprises people. Minčeta Tower is the highest point on Dubrovnik's city walls — that big round tower on the northern side. In Season 2, it doubled as the exterior of the House of the Undying in Qarth, where Daenerys goes to retrieve her stolen dragons. The interior was a studio set, but all the exterior shots of the tower with its distinctive circular roofline — that's Minčeta.

You can get pretty close during the city walls walk (which I'd recommend doing separately anyway — it's about an hour and a half and costs around €35).

Gradac Park — The Purple Wedding

Joffrey's wedding reception — the one where he finally gets what's coming — was filmed in Gradac Park, just west of the Pile Gate. It's a public park with big trees and views of Fort Lovrijenac and the sea. The crew built a temporary set with long tables, canopies, and the elevated stage where Joffrey choked.

Today it's just a park again. Nice spot for a coffee, honestly.

What Most People Get Wrong

Here's the thing that tourists often don't realize: the filming locations in Dubrovnik aren't marked. There are no signs, no plaques, no roped-off areas with explanations. You can walk right past the Walk of Shame stairs and not know it unless someone tells you. That's partly why guided tours exist — not to gatekeep the information, but because the city doesn't advertise it.

The other thing people get wrong is trying to visit every location in one go without a plan. The Old Town isn't huge, but the locations are spread across different levels and neighborhoods. Without knowing the layout, you'll spend half your time going in circles. Our 2-hour Game of Thrones walking tour covers all the main spots in a logical route — but if you want to do it solo, hopefully this guide helps.