Dubrovnik Game of Thrones Locations: The Complete King's Landing Guide (2026)

Dubrovnik was where Game of Thrones built King’s Landing. From Season 2 onwards, the walled old town, Fort Lovrijenac across the bay, and a handful of locations just outside the city served as almost every exterior shot of the capital of Westeros — the Red Keep, the Great Sept of Baelor steps, the King’s Landing harbour, the market where Cersei walked, the Spice King’s Qarth residence (filmed in the same city that also doubled for King’s Landing), and much more besides.

This guide maps every verified filming location you can visit today, groups them into a walkable route, tells you which scene each location represents, and separates the inside-the-walls sights from the two short trips out (Lokrum Island and Trsteno Arboretum) that complete the picture. Everything here is fact-checked against the official kingslandingdubrovnik.com scene-by-scene references. No made-up episode numbers.

The short version

Location	Scene in the show	Practical notes
Fort Lovrijenac	The Red Keep exterior; Joffrey’s tournament (S2)	Included in City Walls ticket (€40)
Jesuit Staircase	Start of Cersei’s Walk of Shame (S5)	Free, outside the Jesuit Church
St Dominic Street	King’s Landing market, protest scenes, part of the Walk of Shame route	Free, public street
Rupe Ethnographic Museum	Exterior of Littlefinger’s brothel (S4, S5)	Exterior is free; small museum inside
Ploče Gate	The Red Keep Gate — Cersei emerges after the Walk of Shame (S5)	Free, main east gate of the old town
Rector’s Palace	Spice King’s residence in Qarth (S2)	€15 entry
Pile Harbour / Pile Gate	King’s Landing Harbour — Myrcella’s departure (S2), Cersei waiting (S6)	Free, outside main west gate
Minčeta Tower	Exterior of the House of the Undying (S2)	On the City Walls ticket
Lokrum Island	Qarth — garden party at Xaro Xhoan Daxos’s mansion (S2)	€30 return ferry, 15 min crossing
Trsteno Arboretum	King’s Landing Gardens — Olenna and Margaery (S4)	€10 entry, 22 min drive north

Time needed:

Self-guided old town walk: 2–3 hours
Old town + Lokrum half-day: 5–6 hours
Full-day including Trsteno: 7–8 hours with a private driver

Why Dubrovnik?

Dubrovnik’s walled old town gave HBO’s location team something they couldn’t build on a soundstage: a real medieval walled city with polished limestone streets, defensive towers, a working harbour inside the walls, a fortress isolated on a rock across the bay, and dense stone architecture that changes character completely depending on camera angle. Filming began in Season 2 (2011) and the city returned as King’s Landing for every subsequent season through the show’s end in 2019.

The production was discreet enough that most of it was invisible to visitors at the time, but today the city openly promotes the connection — there are Game of Thrones museums, walking tours, and a replica Iron Throne on Lokrum Island you can sit on.

Important caveat: Dubrovnik shot the exteriors of King’s Landing and Qarth. Interior shots were filmed on Northern Ireland sound stages. Some iconic GoT scenes (Red Wedding, anything at Winterfell, Dragonstone) were filmed entirely outside Croatia. If you’re a completist, pair a Dubrovnik visit with Northern Ireland and Iceland — but Dubrovnik alone is enough for the bulk of what fans come to see.

Fort Lovrijenac — the Red Keep

What it is in the show: the exterior of the Red Keep in King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. One of the most specific scenes filmed here is the tournament held for King Joffrey’s name day in Season 2.

What it is in real life: an 11th-century triangular fortress perched on a 37-metre rock outside the old town’s western walls, directly across a small bay from Pile Gate. Historically called “Dubrovnik’s Gibraltar” because it was the city’s outer line of defence against Venice. Above the entrance is inscribed the famous Latin motto Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro — “freedom is not sold for all the gold in the world” — which is as Dubrovnik as anything gets.

How to visit: Fort Lovrijenac is included in your Dubrovnik City Walls ticket (€40 high season), valid for 3 days. Walk out of Pile Gate, cross the small bridge, and climb the stone path up to the fort. Inside is a small, mostly empty space — the value is the views back to the old town walls and the specific Red Keep angles you recognise from the show. Allow 30–45 minutes.

Best time: early morning (before 9:30) or late afternoon (after 17:00) for the best light and fewest crowds. The climb is steep but short.

Jesuit Staircase — the start of the Walk of Shame

What it is in the show: the top of the Jesuit Staircase is where Cersei Lannister’s Walk of Shame begins in the Season 5 finale, when she’s forced to walk naked from the Great Sept of Baelor down to the Red Keep.

What it is in real life: a baroque staircase designed by the Roman architect Pietro Passalacqua between 1735 and 1738, leading up from Gundulić Square to the Jesuit Church of St Ignatius (Crkva sv. Ignacija). The staircase is often compared to the Spanish Steps in Rome.

How to visit: completely free. Walk to Gundulić Square (it’s one of the main squares of the old town, about 3 minutes from Stradun). The staircase is on the south side of the square. You can walk up and stand on the exact spot where the scene begins. The Jesuit Church at the top is also worth stepping into.

Photo tip: stand at the top of the staircase and shoot down toward the square — that’s the reverse-angle of the scene’s opening. The steps are uneven, watch your footing.

St Dominic Street and the rest of the Walk of Shame route

What it is in the show: St Dominic Street (Ulica Svetog Dominika) and the streets west of it were used for multiple King’s Landing market scenes, protest crowds, and parts of Cersei’s Walk of Shame route in Season 5.

What it is in real life: a stone street running near the Dominican Monastery in the northeast of the old town. The production chose it because it’s one of the few wider streets in the old town and has the right combination of stone walls and narrow alleys for crowd scenes.

How to visit: part of the walk between the Jesuit Staircase and Ploče Gate on a self-guided tour. No ticket, no queue.

Rupe Ethnographic Museum — Littlefinger’s brothel

What it is in the show: the exterior of the building doubles as Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish’s brothel. Inside this brothel (actual interior shot elsewhere), Tyrion Lannister meets Oberyn Martell in Season 4. Also used as a background for a High Septon scene in Season 5.

What it is in real life: a 16th-century grain storage building (rupe means “holes” — referring to the 15 pit silos in the basement) converted into an ethnographic museum in the 1950s. One of the most unusual museum buildings in Europe.

How to visit: exterior is free. If you want to go inside, the museum is small, cheap, and focused on traditional Dalmatian rural life — fine for a 30-minute stop if you’re curious about the building’s original function. Not essential for a GoT tour unless you love the exterior shot.

Ploče Gate — the Red Keep Gate after the walk

What it is in the show: in Season 5, after Cersei completes her Walk of Shame, she emerges through this gate into the Red Keep courtyard where her mercenary Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane is waiting for her.

What it is in real life: the main eastern gate of Dubrovnik’s old town, opposite Pile Gate on the west. Smaller and quieter than Pile Gate, less dramatic at first glance, but a key defensive gate historically.

How to visit: free, you’ll pass through it anyway if you’re walking around the old town. Worth pausing on the inside of the gate and looking back — the specific angle used in the show is visible once you know what to look for.

Rector’s Palace — the Spice King in Qarth

What it is in the show: the interior of the Rector’s Palace was used for the scene in Season 2 where Daenerys Targaryen asks the Spice King of Qarth for ships to take her to Westeros (he refuses).

What it is in real life: the former seat of the elected Rector of the Ragusan Republic, now a museum. Gothic-Renaissance architecture, a beautiful atrium with a staircase, and upstairs rooms furnished as they were when Dubrovnik was an independent trading city-state.

How to visit: €15 entry. Even without the GoT connection this is worth visiting for 30–45 minutes. The atrium is where the Qarth scene was shot.

Pile Harbour and Pile Gate — King’s Landing Harbour

What it is in the show: Pile Bay, the small cove directly outside Pile Gate on the west side of the old town, was used as the King’s Landing Harbour. Princess Myrcella’s departure by ship in Season 2 and Cersei awaiting her return in Season 6 are both filmed here.

What it is in real life: the bay just outside the western main gate of Dubrovnik, overlooked by Fort Lovrijenac on one side and the city walls on the other. In summer there are usually small swimming platforms and kayak tours launching from the small beach.

How to visit: free. Walk out through Pile Gate, turn left down to the bay. You can recognise the exact angles used in the show by looking back at the walls and up at Fort Lovrijenac on its rock.

Minčeta Tower — the House of the Undying

What it is in the show: the exterior of Minčeta Tower was used as the House of the Undying in Qarth in Season 2 (Episode 10, “Valar Morghulis”), where Daenerys enters to rescue her kidnapped dragons.

What it is in real life: the massive round tower at the northwest corner of Dubrovnik’s city walls, the highest point on the entire 1,940-metre circuit. Built in the 15th century by the Florentine architect Michelozzo Michelozzi, it was the key defensive tower protecting the landward approach to the city.

How to visit: Minčeta is on the City Walls circuit, included in your €40 walls ticket. You’ll pass it during the normal counterclockwise walk of the walls. Climb the inner stairs to the top for the best panoramic view of the entire old town. Combine your walls walk with a self-guided GoT visit — you’re already there.

Lokrum Island — Qarth’s gardens

What it is in the show: the gardens around the Benedictine monastery on Lokrum Island were used for Qarth scenes in Season 2 (Episode 5), including Xaro Xhoan Daxos’s garden party where he tries to convince Daenerys to join him.

What it is in real life: a forested nature reserve island 15 minutes by ferry from Dubrovnik’s old port, with rocky swimming, peacocks, a saltwater lake, and an 11th-century ruined monastery. The monastery building today houses a small Game of Thrones exhibition with a replica Iron Throne you can sit on (photo-ready, but expect a short queue in peak season).

How to visit: €30 return ferry from the old port (Luža), 15-minute crossing, ferries roughly every 30 minutes in high season. Last boat back usually around 6pm. The island is a 3–5 hour visit in its own right — see the full Lokrum Island guide for everything you can do there beyond the GoT exhibition.

Fan tip: the Iron Throne on Lokrum is a fan-facing replica, not a filming prop, but it’s one of the few places in the world where you can take the photo. Go early to beat the queue.

Trsteno Arboretum — King’s Landing Gardens

What it is in the show: the 500-year-old arboretum at Trsteno served as the King’s Landing Gardens, used repeatedly as the garden where Margaery Tyrell, Olenna “the Queen of Thorns” Tyrell, and Sansa Stark have several pivotal private conversations. One of the most specific scenes: Season 4 Episode 4, where Olenna confirms to Margaery her involvement in Joffrey’s poisoning at the Purple Wedding.

What it is in real life: the oldest arboretum in this part of the Mediterranean, founded by the Gozze noble family at the end of the 15th century. Palm trees, exotic imports, a baroque fountain with Neptune, an aqueduct, and olive groves running down to the sea. It’s a botanical garden, not a film studio — the GoT crew barely had to dress it.

How to visit: Trsteno is 22 minutes by car north of Dubrovnik (about 18 km along the coast road). Entry is around €10. Allow 1–1.5 hours on the ground. There’s no direct bus that’s convenient for a half-day trip, and the parking near the arboretum is limited.

This is the single best reason to hire a private driver for a half-day GoT itinerary — the old town walking route is free, but Trsteno without a car is logistically painful. A driver can run Trsteno in the morning (arboretum + coast drive) and drop you back at Pile Gate for the self-guided old town walk in the afternoon.

A suggested self-guided walking route (old town only)

If you want to do the old town GoT walk yourself in one 2–3 hour loop, here’s the most efficient route:

Start: Pile Gate. Exit the walls and walk down to Pile Bay (King’s Landing Harbour). 5 minutes.
Fort Lovrijenac. Cross the small bridge and climb up to the Red Keep exterior. 30–45 minutes including the climb.
Back through Pile Gate into the old town. Walk Stradun east, turning south after 100 metres into the quieter lanes.
Gundulić Square and the Jesuit Staircase. 10 minutes at the square, photos from the top of the steps.
Rupe Ethnographic Museum. Exterior only, 5 minutes.
Rector’s Palace. Spice King’s Qarth residence, €15 entry, 30–45 minutes (optional — skip if time is tight).
St Dominic Street through the north of the old town. Part of the market and protest scenes.
Ploče Gate. Stand inside and look back — Cersei emerges through here after the walk.
City Walls entry at Ploče (if you haven’t already done the walls). Walk the walls counterclockwise and pass Minčeta Tower — the House of the Undying exterior. Allow 60–90 minutes for the full walls circuit.

Total time if you do everything: 3–4 hours including the walls. Total time without the walls and Rector’s Palace: 90 minutes to 2 hours.

Self-guided vs guided walking tour

Self-guided works well if you’ve watched the show recently (or rewatched the key episodes the night before), you have a printed or phone-saved list of locations, and you enjoy finding the angles yourself. Total cost is whatever you pay for attraction tickets you would have bought anyway (City Walls, Rector’s Palace).

Guided walking tours run daily from Pile Gate, typically €20–30 per person, 1.5–2 hours, with a guide who shoots show clips on a tablet at each stop and gives you context. Worth it if: you want someone to do the “this scene, right here” reveal for you, you’re with a group where different people know the show to different depths, or you’d rather listen than read.

Both work. Neither replaces actually going inside Fort Lovrijenac and climbing the walls for Minčeta.

Practical tips

Wear shoes with grip. Dubrovnik’s limestone streets are polished and genuinely slippery. The Jesuit Staircase and the Lovrijenac approach are both stone steps.
Start early or go late. The whole old town becomes impossible at midday in peak season — fine for GoT photos only if you don’t mind crowds in shot.
Book Trsteno for the morning. The arboretum opens early and is nearly empty in the first 90 minutes of the day.
Buy combo tickets where they exist. Your City Walls ticket already covers Fort Lovrijenac — use both on the same day and skip paying twice.
Take the Lokrum ferry early (9 or 10am) so you’re on the island before the midday day-tripper surge. The replica Iron Throne queue is shortest before noon.

When to go for the best GoT experience

Off-season (October to April) is honestly the best time for a Game of Thrones walking tour. The old town is quiet, the light is good, the locations aren’t full of selfie crowds, and your photos look more like the show (which was shot mostly in off-season months). Downside: Lokrum ferries may be reduced or stopped, and Trsteno has shorter hours.

High season (May to September) works but you need to be disciplined — walls at 8am, Lokrum by 10am, Trsteno in the morning, the old town walk in the cooler late afternoon. At midday in July or August, St Dominic Street is not the atmospheric empty street you see in the show.

Frequently asked questions

What parts of Dubrovnik were used in Game of Thrones? Fort Lovrijenac (Red Keep exterior), the walled old town (King’s Landing streets and harbour), the Jesuit Staircase off Gundulić Square (Cersei’s Walk of Shame), Minčeta Tower on the city walls (House of the Undying exterior), Pile Bay (King’s Landing harbour), the Rector’s Palace (Qarth interior), the Rupe Ethnographic Museum (Littlefinger’s brothel exterior), and Ploče Gate. Outside the old town, Trsteno Arboretum (King’s Landing Gardens) and Lokrum Island (Qarth gardens) were also used.

Can you visit the Walk of Shame location in Dubrovnik? Yes — the Jesuit Staircase off Gundulić Square in the old town is free and open at any time. You can stand at the top of the steps where the scene begins and walk down the exact route.

Where was the Red Keep filmed in Dubrovnik? The exterior of the Red Keep is Fort Lovrijenac, the triangular fortress on a rock directly outside the western city walls. It’s included in your Dubrovnik City Walls ticket.

How long does a Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik take? A self-guided walk of the old town locations takes 2–3 hours (longer if you walk the full city walls or visit the Rector’s Palace). Add 3–4 hours for a proper Lokrum Island visit. Add 3–4 hours for Trsteno Arboretum with travel time. Full Game of Thrones day including all three: 8–10 hours.

Is the Iron Throne on Lokrum the real one? No — the Iron Throne on Lokrum is a replica placed in the monastery exhibition for fan photos. HBO gifted it to the island as part of the King’s Landing connection. The real filming props were retained by the production.

Is Trsteno Arboretum worth visiting for non-fans? Yes. It’s the oldest arboretum in this part of the Mediterranean, founded in the late 15th century, with a baroque fountain, an aqueduct, palm trees, and olive groves running down to the sea. Even if you’ve never watched Game of Thrones, it’s one of the more atmospheric gardens on the Adriatic.

Do I need a car to visit Trsteno? A car or a driver is strongly recommended. Trsteno is 18 km north of Dubrovnik along the coast road (~22 minutes). There are some local buses but they are infrequent and don’t fit a half-day itinerary well. A private driver handling Trsteno in the morning and dropping you back in Dubrovnik for the old town walk in the afternoon is the most efficient full-day GoT plan.

Were any scenes filmed inside the City Walls other than Minčeta? Yes — the walls themselves appear in wide establishing shots of King’s Landing throughout the show, and smaller details of the upper walkways were used for specific scenes. Walking the walls gives you the same perspective the cameras used.

Where was the Battle of Blackwater filmed? Mostly elsewhere (Northern Ireland stages and studios). The Dubrovnik scenes around that sequence focus on Pile Bay as the harbour and establishing shots of the walls — not the large-scale naval battle, which was VFX-heavy and shot outside Croatia.

Was Winterfell filmed in Croatia? No. Winterfell scenes were filmed in Northern Ireland. Dubrovnik’s contribution is almost entirely King’s Landing (plus Qarth on Lokrum and at the Rector’s Palace).

Can I see the Game of Thrones locations in 1 day in Dubrovnik? Yes — the old town walking route + Lokrum Island fits comfortably into a single day. Adding Trsteno Arboretum makes it a longer day (around 9 hours door to door) but still doable with a private driver. For the full Dubrovnik one-day plan with or without Game of Thrones, see our one day in Dubrovnik itinerary.

Ready to walk King’s Landing?

The old town walking route is free and self-guideable. Where a private driver genuinely adds value is the half-day combo of Trsteno Arboretum + a scenic coastal drive, which is almost impossible to do efficiently without one.

A recommended full Game of Thrones day:

Morning: private driver to Trsteno Arboretum (22 min north), ~1.5 hours at the gardens, scenic coast drive back
Late morning: drop at Pile Gate, walk Fort Lovrijenac (Red Keep)
Midday lunch: off Stradun
Afternoon: self-guided walk — Jesuit Staircase, Rupe, Ploče Gate, Rector’s Palace
Late afternoon: City Walls including Minčeta Tower (House of the Undying)
Optional add-on day: Lokrum Island ferry for Qarth gardens and the replica Iron Throne

Book a driver for the day: Hire a private driver by the hour — the best option for Trsteno + Dubrovnik coast combinations. Flexible, English-speaking, drops you wherever you want within the old town.

Get to Dubrovnik first:

Plan your Dubrovnik time around the tour:

For more on Dubrovnik, see things to do in Dubrovnik.

Sources for filming locations: scene-by-scene verifications from kingslandingdubrovnik.com (the official city-curated location catalogue) and cross-referenced with showcasingtheglobe.com Dubrovnik GoT guide. Season and episode references are limited to what those sources confirm explicitly — we’ve deliberately avoided inventing episode numbers we couldn’t verify.