Where was Game of Thrones filmed in Croatia?

Croatia hosted filming across three main locations: Dubrovnik served as King's Landing (seasons 2–8), Split's Diocletian's Palace cellars doubled for the slave chambers beneath Daenerys's pyramid in Meereen, and Klis Fortress (near Split) appeared as Meereen's exterior. Šibenik's Cathedral of St James, Trsteno Arboretum and Lokrum island also featured in various seasons.

Which season did Dubrovnik first appear in Game of Thrones?

Dubrovnik first appeared in season 2 and continued through season 8. The production filmed there every year from 2011 to 2018, making it the most consistently used location in the entire series.

Can I visit the Walk of Shame location in Dubrovnik?

Yes. The Walk of Shame (Cersei's naked walk in season 5) was filmed on the Jesuit Staircase — Ulica od Sigurate — leading down from the Jesuit Church to the square near the market. It is a public staircase, open at all times and free to walk.

Is the Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik worth it?

For fans, yes. A guided tour gets you precise locations with storytelling context you would miss alone — which exact archway, which wall section, where specific scenes began and ended. The 90-minute group tours cost around €20–25 and are worth the price for the episode-by-episode breakdown.

Was anything filmed in Dubrovnik for House of the Dragon?

House of the Dragon primarily filmed in the UK (Wales, Cornwall) and Portugal rather than Croatia. Some GoT-adjacent location scouting happened, but Croatia did not feature significantly in the spin-off series.

How long does a Game of Thrones self-guided tour of Dubrovnik take?

A thorough self-guided walk covering the main King's Landing sites — Fort Lovrijenac, Stradun, the city walls section used for battlements, the Jesuit Staircase, Pile Gate area and Minčeta Tower — takes 3–4 hours at a comfortable pace.

Is Klis Fortress difficult to reach from Split?

Klis is about 12 km from Split city centre. By car it takes 20–25 minutes. By bus, line 22 from Split bus station goes to Klis, taking 30–40 minutes. The fortress itself requires a climb on foot from the bus stop; comfortable footwear matters.

Can I visit Lokrum island from Dubrovnik?

Yes. Ferries run from Dubrovnik's Old Town harbour to Lokrum island every 30–60 minutes in season (April–October). The crossing takes about 15 minutes. Lokrum is a nature reserve with an entrance fee; once inside you can visit the locations used for scenes in Quarth in season 2.

Game of Thrones Croatia Filming Locations 2026

Croatia’s coastline and its medieval stone towns turned out to be ideal doubles for the fictional world of Westeros and Essos. When the Game of Thrones production team first scouted locations in 2010, they found in Dubrovnik something no studio set could replicate: a complete walled medieval city that had survived almost intact since the 14th century. Eight seasons later, Croatia had been transformed from a relatively obscure Adriatic destination into one of Europe’s most-visited countries, with a significant share of that growth directly attributable to GoT tourism.

This guide covers every major filming location — in Dubrovnik, Split, Klis, Trsteno and beyond — with practical information on visiting each one.

Why Croatia worked so well as Westeros

The production chose Dubrovnik for King’s Landing in 2010 and never looked back. The Old Town’s pale limestone walls, its terracotta rooftops visible from the Adriatic, and its near-perfect medieval street layout made it the most convincing large-scale King’s Landing set imaginable. The city had another advantage: Croatian authorities were receptive to the production, and the mild Adriatic spring and autumn weather allowed filming outside the punishing summer heat.

Split offered something Dubrovnik lacked — Roman-era underground spaces. The cellars beneath Diocletian’s Palace, built in the fourth century AD and largely unexcavated for over a millennium, became Daenerys’s slave chambers beneath the pyramid of Meereen. The atmosphere was genuine rather than manufactured: dust, stone arches, real historical weight.

Klis Fortress, perched on a limestone ridge above Split, had the exterior presence of a stronghold city — its towers rising dramatically from rock, with sea and mountain visible in every direction. As the exterior of Meereen, it was one of the most striking images of seasons four and five.

Dubrovnik: King’s Landing location by location

Fort Lovrijenac — the Red Keep exterior

Fort Lovrijenac stands on a rocky outcrop just outside the western wall of Dubrovnik’s Old Town, connected by a narrow path above the sea. In the series it served as the exterior of the Red Keep, appearing in major scenes from season two onwards. The inscription above the fort’s gate — Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro (Freedom cannot be sold for all the gold in the world) — is a genuine Ragusan sentiment from the 15th century that the production team wisely left untouched.

The fort has its own entrance fee (included in the city walls ticket on most combinations). Visiting in the early morning gives you the battlements largely to yourself and the light on the sea is extraordinary between 07:00 and 09:00.

Stradun — the streets of King’s Landing

The Stradun (Placa), Dubrovnik’s main limestone thoroughfare, appeared in countless street-level scenes throughout all eight seasons. Joffrey’s procession, Cersei’s walk through the city and numerous background crowd scenes were filmed here. In morning light before the cruise ships arrive, it still looks remarkably like the show.

Be honest with yourself: by July mid-morning, the Stradun is wall-to-wall tourists. Visit before 08:30 or after 19:00. The side alleys running perpendicular to the Stradun — particularly the passages near Prijeko Street — also featured in filming and are much less crowded at any hour.

Jesuit Staircase — the Walk of Shame

The Ulica od Sigurate, the wide balustraded staircase descending from the Jesuit Church of St Ignatius to the market square, was chosen for one of season five’s most discussed scenes: Cersei Lannister’s naked walk of atonement through the streets of King’s Landing. The staircase itself is genuinely impressive — wide Baroque steps framing a view down to the market — and worth visiting regardless of your relationship to the show.

No admission fee; it is a public staircase connecting two city levels.

Minčeta Tower — the House of the Undying

The fortress tower at the highest point of Dubrovnik’s city walls appeared as the exterior of the House of the Undying in Qarth during season two. Minčeta Tower is accessible as part of the city walls circuit — the full wall walk takes roughly 1.5–2 hours and is one of the finest ways to spend an afternoon in Dubrovnik regardless of any GoT interest.

Pile Gate and outer walls

Various battlements and gate scenes were filmed along the exterior of the city walls and particularly around the Pile Gate — the main western entrance to the Old Town, reached by a stone bridge over a dry moat. The gate area, moat and outer wall appear in several battle sequences.

Trsteno Arboretum — the King’s Landing gardens

About 20 km northwest of Dubrovnik, Trsteno Arboretum is one of the oldest Renaissance gardens in Croatia, established in the 15th century. It served as the King’s Landing garden where Sansa spoke with Olenna Tyrell and Margaery in seasons three and four. The arboretum is run by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and can be reached by local bus 12 from Dubrovnik. It is a genuinely peaceful place, largely overlooked by mass tourism, with enormous ancient plane trees and an ornamental fountain.

Lokrum Island — Quarth

A 15-minute ferry from the Old Town harbour, Lokrum is a forested nature reserve island where the exterior of Quarth (the city where Daenerys visits in season two) was filmed. The real Iron Throne used in the original production was displayed at the island’s Fort Royal ruins for several years after filming and became a popular photograph. A replica now stands in its place.

The island itself is worth visiting on its own terms: botanical gardens, a saltwater lake, peacocks wandering the ruins and excellent swimming from rocky shores. Entry requires a nature reserve ticket.

Split: Diocletian’s cellars as Meereen

The underground passages beneath Diocletian’s Palace in Split served as the slave chambers where Daenerys kept her dragons in seasons four and five. The setting is not a recreation — these are genuinely Roman cellars built in the fourth century AD, preserved largely because they were filled with debris for centuries and only systematically excavated in the 20th century.

You can visit the cellars independently as part of walking through the Split Old Town. Most of the main vaulted passages are free to enter; some exhibition spaces charge a small fee. The atmosphere is striking even without the show context — arched stone corridors, low lighting and real Roman masonry.

The Split Game of Thrones tour covers both the Diocletian’s Palace cellars and Klis Fortress in a single excursion, which is the most efficient way to see both locations in a day.

Klis Fortress — exterior of Meereen

Klis Fortress stands on a limestone ridge 12 km north of Split, at the point where the coastal plain narrows to a mountain pass that has been strategically important since ancient times. The fortress was used as the exterior of Meereen in seasons four and five — the towers and ramparts photographed against a backdrop of mountains and (in the show’s CGI-extended version) a vast imagined city.

In reality, Klis is a compact but dramatic fortress that rewards a visit on its own historical terms. It was held by Croatian nobles for centuries and was the seat of the Croatian kingdom for a period in the 16th century during resistance against Ottoman expansion. The views from the ramparts over Split and the Adriatic are exceptional.

A private GoT tour from Split to Klis includes transport and gives you time at both the fortress and the palace cellars without navigating buses.

Šibenik — the Braavos canal

The streets and quay around the Cathedral of St James in Šibenik were used for canal-side scenes in Braavos in season five, when Arya Stark arrives in the Free City. Šibenik’s Gothic-Renaissance cathedral — a UNESCO World Heritage site — and the narrow alleys of the old town provided an appropriately atmospheric Essos backdrop.

The cathedral is worth visiting entirely independent of any GoT connection. It was built entirely of stone (no brick, no mortar) between 1431 and 1535, and its barrel-vaulted ceiling, the frieze of 71 sculpted faces on the exterior apse, and its light-drenched interior make it one of the finest buildings in Croatia.

Planning your GoT trip to Croatia

Best time: April–June or September–October. The filming locations themselves are open year-round, but summer crowds in Dubrovnik in particular can make location photography frustrating and the experience less enjoyable. The early morning strategy — arriving at Dubrovnik Old Town at 07:00–08:00 — is your most reliable tool in any season.

How many days: Dubrovnik locations realistically need 1–1.5 days dedicated time; Split and Klis can be combined in a single day; Šibenik is a half-day from Split or a stop on the drive south to Dubrovnik. The full circuit across all Croatian GoT sites requires 4–5 days minimum with a car, or 6–7 days using ferries and buses.

Organised versus self-guided: A guided tour in Dubrovnik adds genuine value — specific scene identification, production anecdotes and access to local knowledge that contextualises what you are seeing. In Split and Klis, the sites are compact enough that a self-guided approach with the dedicated Split GoT locations guide works well.

Tour comparison: For a detailed breakdown of what each GoT tour offers, see the GoT tours compared guide.

The ultimate GoT city walking tour in Dubrovnik is the highest-rated option on GetYourGuide — 2.5 hours covering all the principal King’s Landing sites with a guide who knows the episodes in detail.

Beyond the show: what makes these places worth visiting

The most useful thing to understand before you visit is that every location used in Game of Thrones was already a destination of significant historical and aesthetic importance. Dubrovnik’s city walls predate the show by six centuries. Diocletian’s Palace was already one of the most important Roman monuments in the Adriatic before the cameras arrived. Klis was already a functioning fortress museum.

This matters practically: if you are not a GoT fan but are travelling with someone who is, you are not sacrificing your itinerary to visit these places. You are visiting genuinely excellent Croatian historical sites that also happen to have served as a film set.

The show created a tourism boom that Croatia is still navigating — cruise ship numbers to Dubrovnik increased markedly after season two aired, and visitor caps in the Old Town now limit daily numbers. But the underlying places are extraordinary and were before the production discovered them.

For the dedicated walking route through all Dubrovnik King’s Landing sites, with GPS waypoints and episode references, see the Dubrovnik GoT walking guide.

Frequently asked questions about Game of Thrones filming locations in Croatia

Which season did Dubrovnik first appear in Game of Thrones?
Dubrovnik first appeared in season 2 and continued through season 8. The production filmed there every year from 2011 to 2018, making it the most consistently used location in the entire series.
Can I visit the Walk of Shame location in Dubrovnik?
Yes. The Walk of Shame (Cersei's naked walk in season 5) was filmed on the Jesuit Staircase — Ulica od Sigurate — leading down from the Jesuit Church to the square near the market. It is a public staircase, open at all times and free to walk.
Is the Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik worth it?
For fans, yes. A guided tour gets you precise locations with storytelling context you would miss alone — which exact archway, which wall section, where specific scenes began and ended. The 90-minute group tours cost around €20–25 and are worth the price for the episode-by-episode breakdown.
Was anything filmed in Dubrovnik for House of the Dragon?
House of the Dragon primarily filmed in the UK (Wales, Cornwall) and Portugal rather than Croatia. Some GoT-adjacent location scouting happened, but Croatia did not feature significantly in the spin-off series.
How long does a Game of Thrones self-guided tour of Dubrovnik take?
A thorough self-guided walk covering the main King's Landing sites — Fort Lovrijenac, Stradun, the city walls section used for battlements, the Jesuit Staircase, Pile Gate area and Minčeta Tower — takes 3–4 hours at a comfortable pace.
Is Klis Fortress difficult to reach from Split?
Klis is about 12 km from Split city centre. By car it takes 20–25 minutes. By bus, line 22 from Split bus station goes to Klis, taking 30–40 minutes. The fortress itself requires a climb on foot from the bus stop; comfortable footwear matters.
Can I visit Lokrum island from Dubrovnik?
Yes. Ferries run from Dubrovnik's Old Town harbour to Lokrum island every 30–60 minutes in season (April–October). The crossing takes about 15 minutes. Lokrum is a nature reserve with an entrance fee; once inside you can visit the locations used for scenes in Quarth in season 2.