“Game of Thrones” has been making headlines throughout the years and has been one of the most popular TV shows worldwide and many people from around the world have illegally downloaded the series billion times. The HBO’s infamous fantasy epic series have filmed mainly in Croatia, Ireland and the UK, Canada, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, United States and Spain. Yes, everything is great except that the Spanish tourism department fears that the series might eventually destroy one of the country’s heritage sites. Remember the Dragonstone?
The series brought thousands of visitors to the site
Following the Season 7 finale of “Game of Thrones,” thousands of tourists visited the heritage site called San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Basque, Spain. According to the Telegraph, there were a total of 75,000 tourists have already visited the 241 steps that were used by HBO to film the Dragonstone scenes. Spanish newspaper El Pais reports that there were roughly 2,500 tourists in July 2017 that have visited the heritage site. As a reward for successfully climbing the staircase, it’s already a tradition that visitors should ring a bell located above the church three times then make a wish.
The bell ringing already suffers
Unfortunately, thousands of “Game of Thrones” fans who visited San Juan de Gaztelugatxe may have caused the problem of bell ringing at the church.
According to the Spanish tourism authorities, the heritage site is starting to suffer possible damage from too many crowds since the show featured the site of which they call the Dragonstone. The tourism department now plans to set a limit on the number of crowds that can visit the site. They also plan on limiting the number of tourists wanting to climb the staircase to avoid ultimate damage to the heritage site.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
The ancient city of Dubrovnik in Croatia, which is the King’s Landing in “Game of Thrones” has been also feared to suffer damages. The site was also visited many times in 2016. The local government of Dubrovnik also announced that they are already planning to limit the number of the visitors to the site. This is to avoid overcrowding that might cause damage to the ancient city.
King’s Landing is the capital city of the Seven Kingdoms in the show, where the Red Keep and the Iron Throne are located.
“Game of Thrones” Season 8 productions will kick off in October 2017. It is expected to premiere in 2018 although it’s possible that the production will wrap up until 2019. It will be the eighth and final season with only six episodes in total.
