7 points on the map where you can feel like a hero of "Game of Thrones"
On August 21, the sixth, penultimate episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones was officially released. If, while waiting for the eighth season, you get bored of Westeros, intrigues and dragons — take yourself on a journey to the real points on the map where the series was filmed. To portray the fictional world of George Martin, the HBO crew traveled from snowy Iceland to burning Morocco. Although a significant part of the film was shot in the studio, using computer graphics, many landscapes and buildings can be seen by anyone. The Iron Throne is only an exciting view in which you can feel like a real resident of Westeros.
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One of the main locations in the series is Ward Castle in Northern Ireland, occupying 400 hectares of land and located near the village of Strangford in County Down. Since 1570 it has been the property of the Ward family, and since the XVIII century the castle belongs to the National Trust of Great Britain. The old Ward Castle was built by Nicholas Ward around 1590.
The courtyard of the castle in the series turned into Winterfell — the fortress of the Stark family and the filming location for most of the first season. Tourists are offered "Winterfell tours", in which they can drive through 20 points of the castle complex, especially important for the series.
Another location from Northern Ireland, one of the most photographed local natural phenomena is the Dark Alley in Ballymoney. This is a natural tunnel of beeches planted by the Stuart family in the XVIII century on the road to their estate.
Attentive viewers probably recognized the northern part of the Royal Highway in the photo. In the first episode of the second season, when Arya Stark ran away from Winterfell disguised as a boy, she drove to the wall along this road.
Posted by Andrea Morehouse (@akmorehouse) Jul 26, 2016 at 2:47 PDT
The 11-kilometer-long beach is considered a site of special scientific significance and a nature protection zone. To see it, guests from all over the world come to County Londonderry and the nearby town of Castle Rock.
In the series, Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre burn statues of the seven gods on this island, and the Red Priestess utters her catchphrase for the first time: "The night is dark and full of horrors."
Many locations of the series are located in Croatia: for example, the resort of Sibenik became the Free City of Braavos, and the beautiful gardens of the Royal Harbor were filmed in the village of Trsteno. The city walls of the capital were provided by the town of Dubrovnik on the Adriatic coast. Its fortress was built from the XII to the XVII century — now it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The length of the fortress wall is 1.9 kilometers, and the maximum height is 25 meters.
The famous walk of shame by Cersei Lannister was also filmed in Dubrovnik. The performer of the role walked along the main street of the historical part of the city — Stradun — past the Cathedral of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary and the Sponza Palace. A 300-meter-long pedestrian street runs throughout the city from the western entrance to the eastern one. It was paved with limestone in the XV century, but after the earthquake of 1667, many buildings were destroyed, and the street was rebuilt according to a new layout.
A crowd of 500 people was filmed in the Queen's procession, and a separate casting was held for the understudy of actress Lena Headey, whose naked body we see in the series, and for a "nudist" from the crowd. George Martin in 2011 said that this episode from the book was inspired by a real case: in the XV century, the former mistress of the late King Edward IV was forced to walk naked through the streets of London before being sent to prison.
An erotic scene involving Jon Snow and wildling Ygritte was filmed in a small lava cave near Lake Myvatn, there really is a natural hot spring there. At the beginning of the XVIII century, the Icelandic criminal Jon Markusson lived in the cave. Gretagya attracted many tourists, but after the eruptions of the 1970s, the water temperature rose, and now it is forbidden to swim there, and in general it is not recommended to climb inside.
The Martell House was rented in the Alcazar Palace in Seville, a unique example of Moorish architecture designed by the Muslim Moors kings. The fortress began to be built in the XII century — now it is the oldest European palace that is still in use; it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the fifth season, Myrcella Baratheon and her fiance Tristan Martell walk in the castle garden before the girl's father Jaime takes her home.
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In addition, the crew of the series visited the islands of Italy and the ancient Roman amphitheatres, Malta and the deserts of Morocco. The seventh season was filmed mainly in Spain: in the Almodovar del Rio Castle, on the Barrique beach, in the city of Caceres and in Seville.
Keywords: Attractions | Game of thrones | Iceland | Spain | Italy | Morocco | Northern Ireland | TV series | Filming