The Walk of Shame in Dubrovnik: Complete Filming Location Guide

What Is the Walk of Shame in Dubrovnik?

The walk of shame is a scene from Game of Thrones in which Cersei Lannister, played by Lena Headey, is forced to walk naked through the streets of King's Landing while a nun walks behind her ringing a bell and calling out her sins. The sequence ends on a long stone staircase, and that staircase is a real place: the Jesuit Stairs in Dubrovnik's Old Town. The production filmed the exterior shots on location in Dubrovnik, which stood in for King's Landing across the series, and the staircase became one of the most recognised pieces of street in the city.

I have walked past those stairs hundreds of times, and the pattern never changes. Visitors arrive, look up, recognise the steps from the show, and take the same photograph from the same angle at the bottom. Some know the scene beat for beat. Others only know there is a famous staircase somewhere in this city and they have found it. Both leave happy, because the stairs deliver exactly what the camera promised: a wide, symmetrical flight of pale stone climbing toward a church facade with the old city stacked around it.

The scene matters to the city because it cemented Dubrovnik's second identity. The Old Town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 under criteria (i), (iii) and (iv), covering a 24.7 hectare property with a 1,188.6 hectare buffer zone, and it spent 1991 to 1998 on the List of World Heritage in Danger during the war. Game of Thrones arrived long after that history, but it introduced the city to an audience that now travels here specifically to stand where the show stood. The Jesuit Stairs are the single most requested of those spots.

If you are planning a wider King's Landing pilgrimage, the stairs are one stop on a longer circuit. Our Game of Thrones filming locations guide maps the full set, and the King's Landing in Dubrovnik guide walks the locations in shooting order.

Where Is the Walk of Shame in Dubrovnik?

The walk of shame stairs are the Jesuit Stairs, on the south side of Dubrovnik's Old Town, reached via Široka Ulica from the Gundulić Square end of the city. From the Stradun, the walk is about five minutes: leave the main street near the Rector's Palace end, climb south past Gundulić Square, and the staircase appears on your left, rising to the Church of St Ignatius. No ticket, no gate, no queue. It is a public street that people live on.

The geography confuses people because Dubrovnik has two famous staircases and they are not the same. The other one is the staircase to the High Sept, which in the show is a different structure entirely, and there are also the stepped lanes that climb Srd's slopes outside the walls. The walk of shame flight is specifically the baroque set of steps adjoining the Jesuit Church of St Ignatius, in the quietest corner of the Old Town, well away from the Stradun's 298 metre run of polished limestone. The Dubrovnik Tourist Board's own description of the Placa notes that the 1272 Statute fixed the final plan of both the city and its main street, and the Jesuit quarter grew up beyond the eastern end of that plan, which is why it feels like a separate, softer neighbourhood.

Here is the practical picture for finding it on foot:

The stairs are also a stop on the paid Game of Thrones walks, which is worth knowing if you would rather have someone steer you between locations than find your way on your own. The three most relevant options below cover the stairs directly or pair naturally with them.

Where Is Cersei's Walk of Shame in Dubrovnik?

Cersei's walk of shame is on the Jesuit Stairs beside the Church of St Ignatius, in the southeastern quarter of the Old Town. In the scene she descends the full flight from the church toward the camera, and the classic frame is shot from the bottom of the stairs looking up. The steps begin where Široka Ulica meets the square below the church, and every guided Game of Thrones tour brings its groups to this same spot.

The reason the location works so well on screen is the enclosure. The staircase is flanked by buildings and framed by the church above, so the camera gets a forced perspective that funnels the eye straight to the walker. When you stand at the bottom, you get the same effect for free, which is why the spot photographs so well even on a phone. The stone is pale, the steps are wide and shallow, and the light in the morning comes down the flight almost sideways, which is the look the show's cinematographers used.

One honest note on expectations: the stairs are shorter in person than they feel on screen. Editing stretches the walk, and the show cuts between Dubrovnik exteriors and studio interiors, so the sequence feels longer than any single location can deliver. What you get on the ground is a beautiful, genuinely baroque flight of steps in a quiet corner of a UNESCO city, plus the thrill of recognition. That is the whole attraction, and it is enough.

For a deeper answer to the same question, including how the scene was actually shot and what the street looked like during filming, our where is Cersei's walk of shame answer page goes scene by scene.

How Do You Get to the Jesuit Stairs?

Enter the Old Town through Pile Gate or Ploče Gate, walk to the Stradun, then head for Gundulić Square and take Široka Ulica uphill toward the Church of St Ignatius. The stairs are at the top of that lane. From Pile Gate allow ten minutes at an easy pace; from Ploče Gate about seven. The route is stepped in places, so it is manageable but not step-free.

I usually steer first-timers in from Pile Gate because the approach down the Stradun gives you the city's full theatrical entrance before you peel off into the quiet Jesuit quarter. The last stretch involves a gentle climb, and Široka Ulica itself is a pleasant, wide lane with a couple of cafes, so the walk is part of the pleasure rather than a chore. If you are staying in Lapad or Gruž, take a bus to Pile and walk in from there; the Old Town is compact enough that once you are inside the walls, everything on this route is on foot.

Wheelchair and stroller users should know that the staircase itself is steps, full stop. There is no ramp and no lift, and the surrounding lanes are a mix of steps and slopes typical of a city built on a ridge. The view from the bottom of the stairs, which is the classic shot, needs no climbing at all, so anyone can get the photograph. Our accessibility in Dubrovnik guide covers the Old Town's step-free routes in detail.

If you would rather arrive with a guide who handles the route and the storytelling at the same time, the Original Game of Thrones Tour with Lokrum and the Iron Throne is the fullest option: it covers the Old Town locations including the stairs and adds an optional Lokrum Island visit with the throne itself. It runs from $25.57 per person and is rated 4.8 across 6,132 reviews on the live listing.

What Do You Actually See on the Stairs Today?

Today the Jesuit Stairs are simply a working street: a broad baroque flight of pale stone steps climbing to the Church of St Ignatius, with apartment doors on either side, laundry occasionally on the lines, and residents coming and going. There is no plaque at the bottom, no entrance fee, and no Game of Thrones branding on site. You recognise it, you photograph it, and the city carries on around you.

That ordinariness is the charm. Unlike a theme-park version of a filming location, nothing here has been tidied for tourists. The church above the stairs is a real place of worship, the square at the bottom is a real neighbourhood square, and the steps are worn the way centuries of feet wear stone. Visitors who arrive expecting a produced attraction sometimes take ten minutes and leave; visitors who arrive expecting a real city street with a famous scene attached tend to linger, sit on the steps with a coffee from the lane below, and enjoy one of the few genuinely quiet corners inside the walls.

Here is what the walk of shame location gives you, honestly weighed:

The stairs also sit inside a part of town most rush past. The Jesuit quarter holds one of the Old Town's loveliest small squares, and the walk down from the stairs toward the cathedral end drops you into lanes that cruise crowds rarely reach. If the Stradun feels like a conveyor belt at midday, this is where you come to remember that people live here, 41,562 of them in the city as a whole at the 2021 census.

When Is the Best Time to Visit the Stairs?

Early morning, before 09:00, is the best time to photograph the Jesuit Stairs empty, and the earlier the better: the Old Town's own counting system recorded 5,419 people inside the walls at 08:00 on a September day, rising to a 7,739 peak at 10:00. After about 10:00 you will be sharing the stairs with tour groups. Late evening is the second-best window, once the day-trippers have gone.

Those crowd numbers are worth internalising because they are counter-intuitive. The city runs six counters at every Old Town entrance, updating a headcount every 15 minutes, against an official carrying capacity of 11,275 people from the UNESCO carrying-capacity assessment. On that same September day the count read 1,200 at 04:00, 3,139 at 07:00, 7,297 at 09:00 and 7,205 by 11:00. In other words, between 07:00 and 10:00 the population of the Old Town more than doubles, and the stairs, being a fixed tour stop, feel that doubling directly.

The seasonal picture matters as much as the hourly one. September and October are the two busiest cruise months of the year, ahead of July and August, so an autumn visit does not buy you emptier streets on its own. What buys you emptier stairs is the clock. Be at the bottom of the flight by 08:30 and you will often have it to yourself; arrive at 13:00 and you will queue politely behind three separate tour groups for the same frame.

Which Game of Thrones Tour Covers the Walk of Shame?

Every dedicated Game of Thrones walking tour in Dubrovnik visits the Jesuit Stairs, because it is the city's single most requested filming location. The cheapest dedicated option is the Game of Thrones Walking Tour from $29 per person, rated 4.9 across 1,052 reviews. The fullest is the Original Game of Thrones Tour with Lokrum and the Iron Throne from $25.57, rated 4.8 across 6,132 reviews, which adds the island and the throne.

The choice between them comes down to what you want from the day. The pure walking tour spends its whole two-ish hours inside the walls, hitting the stairs, the Red Keep exteriors, the quay where so much intrigue was filmed, and the other King's Landing spots, with a guide doing scene recall at each one. The Lokrum version compresses the Old Town portion and then moves to the island where parts of the Qarth and garden sequences were shot, finishing with the replica Iron Throne photo opportunity. Families with casual fans often prefer the second; visitors who know the show episode by episode usually prefer the first.

A third option deserves a mention because it is not a Game of Thrones tour at all. The Ancient City Walls and Wars walking tour, from $29.58 per person and rated 4.8 across 1,387 reviews, walks the walls with a focus on the real military history of the city, and the walls give you the elevated view down over the Jesuit quarter that the show's own aerial shots used. Plenty of visitors do both: a GoT tour for the fiction, a walls tour for the astonishing fact.

One recent guest review of the Original Game of Thrones tour captures the appeal of the Lokrum add-on well:

Brilliant day! Tour guide was very welcoming and informative! Highly recommend if you love Game of Thrones, definitely book the extra hour to go to Lokrum Island aswell! Also helps you get your bearings in the Old Town!

Lewis

For a fuller comparison of every option, including free pay-what-you-want walks that also pass the stairs, our Game of Thrones tour comparison guide breaks down price, length and coverage tour by tour.

Is the Walk of Shame Free to Visit?

Yes. The Jesuit Stairs are a public street and standing on them, photographing them and climbing to the church costs nothing, at any hour of the day. The only paid items nearby are the city walls, 40 euro for an adult in main season from 1 March to 30 November and 20 euro in December, and the tours, which start at $25.57 per person for a guided GoT walk that includes the stairs as a stop.

The free part deserves emphasis because Dubrovnik has a reputation for expensive attractions, and the stairs are the glorious exception. You can see the location, shoot the classic frame, explore the whole Jesuit quarter and walk back to the Stradun without spending a kuna of history or a euro of today. If you do want to add the walls, and most visitors should, the adult ticket is 40 euro in main season and covers Fort Lovrijenac too, per the walls operator's own shop. The operator's stated hours at the time of check were 08:00 to 19:30.

A note on that pass row, because it trips people up: the one-day Dubrovnik Pass costs the same 40 euro as the standalone walls ticket in main season only, and in that window it adds ten more sights plus a 24-hour bus ticket, which makes it the better buy for anyone museum-inclined. In December the walls ticket drops to 20 euro and no pass tier is on sale at all, so the comparison flips. Our is the Dubrovnik Pass worth it guide runs the full maths.

Whether you come free at dawn or with a guide at noon, the stairs repay the trip. They are the rare filming location that asks nothing of you: no ticket, no queue management, no interpretive centre, just a beautiful street that happens to carry one of television's most memorable scenes. That is the pitch of this whole city, really, and the walk of shame stairs are its purest expression. If you are building a full itinerary around moments like this one, Things to Do in Dubrovnik is where the rest of the city lives.

If the trio above leaves you torn, the dedicated Game of Thrones Walking Tour is the one I would point a first-time visitor toward first: it is the cheapest of the three, it has the strongest rating, and its entire route lives inside the walls within a short walk of the stairs themselves. It also makes the most sense if your Game of Thrones interest is specifically the King's Landing street scenes rather than the island locations, since every one of its stops is a five to ten minute stroll from the Jesuit Stairs.

Common Questions About the Walk of Shame in Dubrovnik