Lokrum

Where it sits. Lokrum lies about 600 metres off Dubrovnik's old port, a wooded island of roughly 72 hectares running some two kilometres northwest to southeast and rising to 96 metres at its central ridge. From the city walls it reads as a low green mass closing the seaward view; from its own shore, the reverse view of Dubrovnik's southern flank is the best there is. It is a nature reserve, and one rule governs everything about a visit: nobody stays overnight. The last boat leaves and the island empties.

Monks, an archduke and a curse. Benedictines founded an abbey here in 1023, and the ruins of their monastery, rebuilt after the 1667 earthquake, still stand at the island's centre with a Romanesque and Gothic cloister at its core. In 1808 the French administration dissolved the community. The story told ever since is that the monks, ordered to leave, walked the island three times at night with candles turned upside down and cursed anyone who took Lokrum for personal profit — a curse whose subsequent victims are enumerated with some relish by local guides. In 1859 Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg bought the island, converted part of the monastery into a summer residence, laid out gardens and imported plants and birds; he left to become Emperor of Mexico and was executed by firing squad at Querétaro in 1867. The peacocks that stalk the paths and shriek from the pines descend from birds he brought in.

On screen. Lokrum played Qarth in the second season of Game of Thrones. The garden party at the house of Xaro Xhoan Daxos, where Daenerys is courted and warned by the Thirteen, was filmed in and around the monastery cloister and the gardens beside it, with the arcades, the cypresses and the sea light doing the work that a set would otherwise have had to fake. In recognition, HBO gave the island a full-size replica of the Iron Throne, which sits today in a small visitor centre inside the monastery complex alongside a modest exhibition about the shoot; queuing to sit on it has become the island's most photographed activity. It is worth noting that Qarth was never a single place: the Spice King's courtyard is the Rector's Palace in the city, and the exterior of the House of the Undying is the Minčeta tower on the walls.

What you actually see today. A botanical garden laid out from 1959 fills the flat ground near the monastery with eucalyptus, agaves, cacti and palms, many of them descendants of Maximilian's imports; parts were badly damaged in the 1990s and by rabbits, and it now has a slightly wild, half-reclaimed quality that suits the island. Paths lead in three directions: north to the small salt lake known as the Dead Sea, a shallow warm pool connected to the open water through underground channels and safe for children; east and south to flat rock shelves and ladders for swimming, including a marked naturist section on the southeastern shore; and uphill to Fort Royal, the circular fort the French built in 1806 on the summit, whose roof terrace gives a full circle of horizon from the Elaphiti islands to the Konavle coast.

Getting there. Boats leave from Dubrovnik's old port beside the Ploče gate roughly every half hour through the season, and the crossing takes about fifteen minutes. Service typically runs from around Easter to early November and stops entirely in winter, when swell and the reserve's rules close the island. Buy the return with the entry fee, which is bundled, and note the time of the last departure carefully — it is enforced, and there is no accommodation, no camping and no way off outside it. Bring water and food if planning a long walk; the single restaurant near the monastery is adequate rather than good, and the far paths have nothing at all.

Practical detail. The main paths from the jetty to the monastery are broad and reasonably level, so the central area is manageable with care, but the climb to Fort Royal and the shore routes involve rough steps and loose stone. Shade is plentiful under the pines, which makes Lokrum a sensible choice on a day too hot for the walls. Swimming shoes help on the rock shelves, sea urchins are common in the shallows, and the peacocks will steal an unattended sandwich without hesitation.