Game Of Thrones: The Amazing Real-Life Locations

‘Game of Thrones’ fever shows no sign of abating.
 
Fans eagerly await the start of series 5 on Sky Atlantic this April, reading all the latest online rumours, poring over leaked set photos, and gawping at the leaked trailer for the new season, happy to endure grainy camera footage for the first opportunity to see Tyrion’s beard in all its promised glory.
 
The ‘Game Of Thrones’ exhibition arrived in London this week but don’t even think about trying to go along on a whim - all the tickets sold out instantly.
 
It seems we just can’t get enough of HBO’s hit adaptation of George RR Martin’s ‘A Song Of Ice and Fire’, but those willing to go the extra mile, you can transport yourself to Westeros in just a few hours… and not run the risk of losing your head.
 
Here’s what we learned when we visited the Croatian locations used by ‘Game Of Thrones’
 
Dubrovnik was born to be King’s Landing

 
‘Game Of Thrones’ is a huge international production that shoots on multiple continents. Its primary base is Belfast, Northern Ireland, but it’s also shot on location in Scotland, Iceland, the United States, Spain, and Morocco.
 
For King’s Landing, the capital of Westeros and home of the Iron Throne, the show used locations in Malta during the first season, but they decided to up sticks and relocate to Dubrovnik for series 2 and beyond.
 
A walk around the city’s ancient walls makes it abundantly clear why the location scouts chose the Croatian city to be King’s Landing. With its authentically medieval forts, imposing city gates, and humble white stone dwellings, you instantly feel like you’re walking in the real place.
 
Satellite dishes are the show’s worst nightmare

The visual effects wizards film Dubrovnik exteriors for the show, digitally removing the city’s thousands of satellite dishes and modern signifiers like telegraph lines, before they cut up and jumble the distinctive rooflines into something more fitting for the capital of the Seven Kingdoms.
 
Interestingly, during the Middle Ages Dubrovnik was itself known as “The City Of Seven Flags” as it was a free city state that bought its independence from whichever power was the strongest at the time.
 
If you time it right you can be an extra on the show

 
Due to the massive scale the show works on, there’s often call for extras to appear in crowd shots. Last year, a Croatian extras company held an open casting call for background artists, and fans of the show flew in from around to world for a chance to appear in the show.
 
Show runners David Benioff and DB Weiss warn that an extras life isn’t for the feint-hearted saying the show’s Belfast extras “work ungodly hours, endure wind and the rain and the cold and the mud”. Croatia is a little bit more temperate than Belfast, but the sentiment remains.
 
Huge season 5 scenes were shot in Dubrovnik

 
The local tour guides are sworn to secrecy about what was shot where in Dubrovnik for the fifth season, but we know for a fact that a pivotal S5 sequence was shot at the city’s famous Jesuit staircase in the Old City.
 
It caused a bit of stir with the locals due to some nudity, but we won’t spoil what happens for you here.
 
Most of the garden scenes are shot in an ancient Arboretum

If you were going to parody ‘Game Of Thrones’, and lord knows it’s ripe for it, you’d probably include a scene with two characters wandering along ornate garden paths whispering devious plans to each other.
 
All of the show’s scenes like that are actually shot just outside of Dubrovnik in the peaceful Arboretum Trsteno, the oldest arboretum in the world that dates back to 1492. The driveway down to the spooky old gardens is bordered by two huge 500-year old trees that look remarkably like the Weirwood trees worshipped by the Starks in the show.
 
The dragons can be found in Split

 
For Daenerys’ scenes of exile, the ‘Game Of Thrones’ crew head up the coast to the ancient city of Split.

Once the retirement home of Roman emperor Diocletian, Split is built atop one of oldest surviving fortresses in the world, dating back to the 4th century AD. This historic site, preserved by UNESCO, provides the show with many locations for the Free Cities.

Beneath the palace remains a huge underground complex, once used for storage by Diocletian, provided the perfect place for the Khaleesi to house her dragons at the end of season 4.
 
Split will appear a lot more in S5

 
Again, the local tour guides have signed strict non-disclosure agreements when it comes to details about what’s been filmed on location for S5, but we know a huge scene was shot outside the northern ‘Golden Gate’ entrance to the old town.
 
The town’s non-more ‘Game Of Thrones’-ey market square will also play host to a pivotal scene from the new season too. Locals expect more and more ‘Thrones’ fans to starting pouring into their town after they see S5.
 
The location scouts took a leaf out of 70s Doctor Who

 
For S4’s dramatic siege of Mereen, which saw Daenerys’ champion Daario defeat a city knight, the show decamped to a huge disused quarry in Zrnovnica.
 
The dusty hole in the ground was spruced up with some CGI embellishments to add city walls and huge armies, which is strangely reminiscent of Tom Baker-era Doctor Who, which often use quarries as cyphers for alien planets.
 
A restored water mill down the road also appeared in S4 in the scene where Grey Worm is caught watching the Khaleesi’s handmaiden Missandei bathing in the river.
 
No acting required at Klis fortress

The final location we visited on our tour was the epic Klis fortress, which sits perched atop a stone outcrop, 350m above sea level.
 
It’s not a huge stretch to imagine Lannister banners flapping in the wind up there, instead of the red and white Croatian flags you see, so the actors probably don’t need to use much imagination to get into character when they shoot there.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Fourth Season is out on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 16 February.

Croatia Airlines, the Croatian flag carrier (+44 208 563 0022, www.croatiaairlines.com) flies to Zagreb and Rijeka from £111.00; London to Split from £123.00 and from London to Dubrovnik from £159.00. For more information on what to see and do in Croatia, please visit www.croatia.hr.

For more information on Dubrovnik's Hotel Excelsior visit the official website here.

For more information on the Dubrovnik Game of Thrones walking tour click here, and for the Split Game of Thrones walking tour click here.