Dubrovnik Wedding Photography: City Walls, Lovrijenac Fortress and the Adriatic

Dubrovnik's Old City is one of the best-preserved medieval walled cities in the world — a completely intact ring of 14th-century limestone walls enclosing a baroque city of church towers, palaces, and marble-paved streets that plunge to the deep Adriatic on three sides. It is also, since 2011, the most famous filming location for HBO's Game of Thrones (King's Landing), which has brought an additional cultural resonance to its already extraordinary architecture. For wedding photography, Dubrovnik offers architecture of unique drama and historical weight.

The Old City Walls

The defensive walls of Dubrovnik — 2km in circuit, up to 6m thick and 25m high, flanked by towers and bastions — can be walked in their entirety. The wall walk gives views both over the red-tiled rooftops of the Old City interior and outward over the Adriatic to the Elafiti Islands. For wedding photography, the walls provide elevated positions from which to photograph couples against the cityscape below, and specific turrets and gates where the architectural detail is extraordinary.

The Minčeta Tower (the highest point of the walls, used as a filming location for Game of Thrones' House of the Undying) and the Lovrijenac Fortress (an independent tower on a cliff outside the main walls, also used extensively in filming) are the most dramatic architectural elements. The wall walk is open from 8am — arriving at open is essential for crowd-free photography.

Key Photography Locations in Dubrovnik

• ◆The Stradun (Placa): The main marble-paved street of the Old City — a wide, flat, perfectly smooth Baroque promenade connecting the two main city gates. At dawn before the tourist crowds arrive, the Stradun is empty and the morning light on the limestone facades is warm and golden.
• ◆Lovrijenac Fortress: A free-standing fortress on a 37-metre cliff outside the Pile Gate, with views back over the Old City and the sea. Used in Game of Thrones as the Red Keep — and one of the most dramatic elopement photography locations available in Croatia. The terrace on the highest level, with the Old City walls and red rooftops behind, and the sea below, is a powerful composition.
• ◆The Rector's Palace courtyard: A 15th-century Gothic-Renaissance palace with a beautiful inner courtyard of columns and arches. Used for concerts during the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and available for events. Not publicly accessible for photography unless participating in a ticketed event or hired for private functions.
• ◆Mount Srđ cable car viewpoint: A cable car ascends from just above the Pile Gate to 412m Mount Srđ — the ridge above Dubrovnik — for panoramic views of the entire city, the Old Harbour, and the Adriatic islands. At sunset, the view from Srđ over the red-roofed city turning amber in the light is unmatched.
• ◆The Old Harbour: The small enclosed harbour on the eastern side of the Old City, with stone steps, the Porporela breakwater, and the Adriatic. Fishing boats and day-trip boats depart from here to Lokrum Island. The harbour at dawn, with the water still and the towers reflected, is deeply beautiful.