If you recognize Dubrovnik from the photographs it’s probably because it’s been prominently featured in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones. In fact at this point nearly 90 percent of its tours are GoT-related. How that would affect anyone living in this area is hard to really pin down because the tourism this has brought is very impressive. But the idea that a TV show has made the city so popular has its ups and downs. For one, few people really know the history of Dubrovnik aside from the fictitious goings on that GoT has shown throughout its several seasons, meaning that what they know about the place isn’t real and didn’t happen way back when.
For instance, Dubrovnik is located on the Adriatic Sea and was a for a longtime based on its maritime trade. It became increasingly developed in 15th and 16th centuries and was known for its great wealth and skilled diplomats. But you likely won’t hear this kind of history if you visit the city unless you know which tour guides to look for since its use in GoT has been so extensive that people can now pick out from screenshots just where certain scenes took place in the city.
It’s great for the tourism trade but it seems to neglect the fact that people don’t seem to want to know the actual history of the place. Honestly that concern seems a bit naive really since by the time GoT is in the rearview, which could be a few years to a decade really, people will know about as much about the city as they did before. Dubrovnik is a city that is important to those living in it, around it, and to those who have anything to do with it on a constant basis. To the rest of the world it’s what many other cities are, just another pleasing attraction that is wonderful to look upon but requires some in-depth research to find anything that might be pertinent or interesting.
The look of the city is magnificent as it rests upon the seafront, but it’s history is at this point so vast and so long that simply reducing it to a single tour would be difficult and even minimalist in nature it seems. If you’re going to understand a city then it is of some importance to actually experience the city, as well as the culture that surrounds it, no matter what that might be, in an attempt to immerse yourself in what it has to offer.
Personally I would recommend to anyone that getting to know something about the city from a historical standpoint would be the best start since it would lay a firm base of understanding for what Dubrovnik is all about. After that it would then be up to the individual to learn anything further or take that basic knowledge and apply it to what they really want to learn about. Game of Thrones has used this city as a setting for so long now that much of it should have been mapped out, but there is always something else to learn.
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