Church of St. Ignatius

This guide to the Church of St. Ignatius in Dubrovnik opens with Lena Headey's body double descending this very staircase for a widely discussed Game of Thrones scene in two thousand fifteen, a shoot that reportedly closed nearby bars and restaurants for the day. It then steps back to how the stairs came to exist at all: Baroque architect Andrea Pozzo's church, begun in sixteen ninety-nine, and the sweeping staircase below it, finished in seventeen thirty-eight and modeled on Rome's Spanish Steps by Jesuits known for using drama and spectacle to move a crowd. Look at the stone underfoot, restored only last year after decades of pilgrims, tourists and one very famous fictional queen wore it smooth.