Fort Lovrijenac

Where it sits. Lovrijenac stands on a sheer rock about 37 metres above the sea, immediately west of Dubrovnik's old town and outside the city walls, separated from them by the small inlet of Kolorina and the beach at Pile. Its triangular plan follows the shape of the rock, and its three terraces step upward toward the sea-facing point. Because it stands apart, it is the one place from which the western walls, Fort Bokar and the whole southern flank of the city can be photographed as a single composition, with the island of Lokrum closing the view to the south-east.

The story behind it. Local tradition holds that Ragusan citizens raised the first fort here in a matter of months in the early eleventh century, after learning that a Venetian fleet was coming with materials to build one on the same rock; the Venetians arrived, found the position taken and sailed away. The documented history is more modest — the fort is first securely mentioned in 1301 — but the surviving structure carries an unmistakable political message in its own masonry. The walls facing the open sea and the potential enemy are up to twelve metres thick. The wall facing the city is only about sixty centimetres. That was deliberate: if the commander of Lovrijenac ever turned against the Republic, the city's guns could break the fort open in an afternoon. For the same reason the garrison commander was replaced every month and could not be reappointed, and the keys were handed over in a public ceremony. Above the entrance an inscription still reads Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro — liberty is not well sold for all the gold in the world.

On screen. Lovrijenac is the Red Keep in the second season of Game of Thrones, and it is the location that convinced the production to move King's Landing from Malta to Croatia after the first season. The wide upper terrace, ringed by battlements with the sea behind, gave the show a courtyard that reads instantly as a royal fortress without any set dressing beyond banners and awnings. The clearest use is Joffrey's name-day tournament in the second-season opener, staged on the terrace with the sea horizon behind the spectators. Scenes on the Red Keep's outer ramparts return here through the season. It is worth being precise about the limits: the throne room, the Small Council chamber and every interior of the Red Keep were studio sets built in Belfast, and much of what a visitor imagines happening inside these walls happened inside a warehouse in Northern Ireland. What Lovrijenac provided was the silhouette, the height and the sea.

The park below. A few minutes west along the shore, the terraced public garden of Gradac looks down on the Danče cove through umbrella pines and cypresses. The production used this park for the wedding feast of Joffrey and Margaery in the fourth season — the long banquet tables, the pie, the poisoning — because the pines gave dappled shade and the sea filled the background without a single roof in shot. The park is open, free and usually near-empty, which makes the contrast with the crowded walls striking.

What you actually see today. The climb is a flight of roughly 175 stone steps from the Pile side, steep and unshaded. Inside, the fort is essentially three vaulted levels around an open court, with a small chapel, deep casemates and rows of gun embrasures still aimed at the water. Little is furnished or explained, which is part of the appeal: the interest is in the geometry, the light falling through the embrasures and the views from the parapet back toward Bokar. Since 1952 the Dubrovnik Summer Festival has staged Hamlet here, using the terraces and the ramparts as the castle at Elsinore; the acoustics in the upper court are surprisingly good.

Getting there and timing. Lovrijenac is a five-minute walk from the Pile Gate: cross the small square, follow the path around the bay, then climb. Admission is included in the combined ticket with the city walls, which is valid on the same day and worth using in one direction or the other. Mornings are cooler and the stone is easier on the legs; late afternoon puts the sun behind the fort, which flattens photographs taken from the walls but lights the city beautifully from the fort itself. The steps and the unsurfaced upper levels make the site impractical for wheelchairs and awkward for anyone unsteady, and there is no shelter at the top in rain or in a strong bura wind.