Jesuit Stairs & St. Ignatius Church

These stairs are famous for two things: being modelled on the Spanish Steps in Rome, and being the exact spot where Cersei Lannister was stripped naked and paraded through King's Landing in the most expensive Game of Thrones scene ever filmed in Dubrovnik. The production had to pay every business in the area — every bar, shop, and café — a full day's revenue to shut down for filming. The cost of public humiliation, it turns out, is staggering even in fiction.

The Jesuit Staircase was designed by Roman architect Pietro Passalacqua and completed in 1738, making it the most prominent example of Baroque urban planning on the Croatian Adriatic coast. The broad, elegant steps sweep up from Gundulićeva Poljana (the morning market square) to the imposing facade of the Church of St. Ignatius, creating a dramatic ceremonial approach that was meant to echo the grandeur of Rome. The comparison to the Spanish Steps is not coincidental — Passalacqua knew them well.

The Church of St. Ignatius itself was designed by Andrea Pozzo, the celebrated Jesuit architect and painter, who worked on it from 1699 to 1703. Modelled on Il Gesù in Rome — the mother church of the Jesuits — it is the largest Baroque church in Dubrovnik. Inside, the ceiling frescoes depicting scenes from the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola are among the finest Baroque paintings in the region. The adjoining Collegium Ragusinum, the Jesuit college established in 1658, was a major centre of education until the Jesuit order was suppressed in 1773.

At the base of the stairs, the Gundulićeva Poljana hosts Dubrovnik's daily open-air market, where vendors sell local produce, lavender sachets, and bottles of homemade liqueurs. The juxtaposition of a grand Baroque staircase rising above tables of cheap souvenirs is perfectly Dubrovnik.