A boy king dies at his own wedding feast. A queen walks the streets of her city in disgrace. A young woman from across the sea goes looking for her stolen dragons. All of it happened, on screen, inside and around these walls. HBO's Game of Thrones filmed its capital, King's Landing, in Malta for the first season. From the second season on, the production moved the capital's outdoor scenes to Dubrovnik, and the city played King's Landing, and a corner of the faraway city of Qarth, for the rest of the series. This walk follows those scenes, and under each one it tells the real story of the stone: the Republic of Ragusa, a small, rich city state that built these walls to protect its freedom. We start with a cold open from Season 4, go back to Season 2, then move forward to the show's most famous walk, and we finish where that walk ended. Spoilers throughout, since the show ended in 2019. This is an unofficial fan walk, not made with or endorsed by HBO. It's one of our self-guided walking tours, about 2.1 kilometers from Gradac Park to the Ploče Gate.

Before you set off

This walk is short, but it is dense. It covers about 2.1 kilometers, or roughly half an hour of walking, but give it an hour to an hour and a half with the stops. Dubrovnik climbs a slope, so expect a lot of stone steps, some of them steep. Wear shoes with grip, and carry water in summer, because shade is patchy. The Old Town is a lived-in town and a very busy one, so go early in the morning or in the evening if you can. Fort Lovrijenac and the top of Minčeta Tower are on the City Walls ticket, and the Rupe museum and the Rector's Palace charge their own entry. The walls' ticket prices and the city's visitor limits change, so check before you go. Gradac Park is free, and it reopened in September 2026 after a full renovation. One more thing: the show's throne room and castle interiors were studio sets, so everything on this walk is an outdoor location, and some of the wide shots of the city were extended with computer effects.

Gradac Park

You're in Gradac Park, a pine park on the cliff just west of the Pile Gate. Walk toward the edge and look east. Across the water, on its own rock, stands the fortress of Lovrijenac. Keep it in view. It's our next stop, and on screen it was the castle of the kings.

We begin in the middle of the story, with Season 4, episode 2, called The Lion and the Rose, first aired on the 13th of April, 2014. King Joffrey, the cruel young king of the show, is marrying Margaery Tyrell, and the wedding feast is held outdoors. This park is where that feast was filmed. Imagine the royal court gathered under these pines, with the sea below and the king at the center of it all.

Then the celebration turns. Joffrey has been poisoned at his own wedding, and he dies at the feast. Fans call it the Purple Wedding, and it's one of the scenes people come to Dubrovnik to stand inside.

Be honest with yourself about what you see today, though. This park opened in 1898 and only recently had its first full renovation. It was closed through 2025 and into 2026, and the city reopened it in September 2026, at a cost of about 4.65 million euros, with new paths, new lighting, a playground, a small amphitheater and 401 new trees. So the feast was filmed here, but the park around you looks different from the one on screen. The view across to Lovrijenac is the part you'll recognize.

Now we jump back two years, to Season 2, when Joffrey was alive and enjoying his crown. Leave the park heading east toward the Pile Gate, then take the lane down toward the little bay and climb the stone steps up to the fortress. About four minutes.

Fort Lovrijenac

You're at Fort Lovrijenac, on a rock about 37 meters above the sea, outside the city walls. Before you go in, look up over the gate. A Latin line is carved there. It means that freedom is not sold for all the gold in the world. Hold on to that sentence. It was the creed of the real city, and it's the opposite of how most of the people in the show behave.

In Season 2, this fortress plays the Red Keep, the royal castle of King's Landing. Here Joffrey holds a tourney for his name day, his birthday, with knights fighting for the entertainment of a king who prefers cruelty to sport. Here too, Cersei Lannister, the king's mother, faces Littlefinger, the court's great schemer, in a short, tense scene about power that fans still quote. In both scenes the message is the same. In King's Landing, power belongs to whoever is willing to use fear.

The real fortress has a much longer story. Its origins are traced to the early 1000s, and it's first mentioned in the records in 1301. It was strengthened in 1464, when its western and northern walls were doubled in thickness, reaching 12 meters in places. It stands apart from the rest of the walls, alone on its rock, as if keeping watch over the city's western side.

Today the courtyard is also a stage. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival has used it for productions of Hamlet, so the Red Keep isn't the only troubled royal court to have played here.

Next, a farewell at the harbor and a city that turns on its king. Go back down the steps, follow the bay around and climb up to the Pile Gate, the big western entrance to the Old Town. About four minutes.

Pile Gate

Dubrovnik's city walls on the cliffs by Pile bay

You're at the Pile Gate, the main western gate of the Old Town. Look down at the little harbor of Pile bay below you, then turn and look at the walls themselves. You're about to walk inside them.

We're still in Season 2. Princess Myrcella, Cersei's daughter, is sent away by ship to Dorne, a kingdom in the south. The royal family comes down to the docks to see her off, and the departure was filmed around the harbor below this gate.

On the way back from the docks, the mood of the city breaks. The people of King's Landing are starving, and as the king's procession passes, the crowd riots against Joffrey. It's the moment the show makes it plain that the capital has turned on its king, and it played out right around this gate.

Now the real walls, which are more impressive than any set. They run for 1,940 meters around the Old Town, with 16 towers, three fortresses and six bastions. In places they rise 25 meters high, and on the land side they're 4 to 6 meters thick. They belonged to the Republic of Ragusa, the city state that ran its own affairs here from 1358 to 1808. A small trading city doesn't keep its freedom for 450 years by luck. It keeps it with walls like these, and with very careful politics, which you'll hear about at the Rector's Palace.

From the riot, we move forward a few episodes, to the Season 2 finale and a very different city. Go through the gate, then turn left and climb the stepped lanes inside the walls toward the big round tower at the north-west corner. About three minutes, mostly uphill.