Cersei’s Walk of Atonement Photo Credit: Game of Thrones
Walk of Atonement Stairway – Dubrovnik
Episodes of the Game of Thrones were filmed in Dubrovnik and just last week I was standing on this very spot where a wide and elegant marble stairway ascends to an upper plaza. This stone stairway was featured in the “Walk of Atonement” episode and I am excited to see it. I imagine Queen Cersei Lannister, stripped naked and making her walk of penance down the staircase past the jeering crowds. Dubrovnik is a bewitching city, the very essence of a medieval Mediterranean fantasy and the perfect setting for filming The Game of Thrones.
“A sinner comes before you, Cersei of House Lannister. Mother to His Grace, King Tommen, widow of His Grace, King Robert. She has committed the acts of falsehood and fornication. She has confessed her sins, and begged for forgiveness. To demonstrate her repentance, she will cast aside all pride, all artifice, and present herself as the gods made her… to you, the good people of this city. She comes before you with a solemn heart, shorn of secrets, naked before the eyes of gods and men, to make her walk of atonement.“― The High Sparrow to the people of King’s Landing[src]
Walk of Atonement Stairway – Dubrovnik
Marty standing on the Walk of Atonement Staircase, Dubrovnik
Walk of Atonement Stairway – Dubrovnik
I return my thoughts to the present, and Queen Cersei fades from my mind, and the jeering crowds turn into photo snapping tourists, myself one of them. I dutifully take photos and plan to come back early tomorrow morning when I can take photos without the tourists.