At the end of 2021 Monsanto, in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, became the setting for the series “House of the Dragon”, the prequel to “Game of Thrones”.
The Historical Village has already created a route alluding to the theme, but now an extended itinerary is being prepared to Cáceres, in the Spanish region, which includes several filming locations.
Between the Historical Village of Monsanto and Cáceres, a Spanish UNESCO heritage city, there is a distance of around 150 km. The two locations are linked by the administrative regions on either side of the border: Beira Baixa and Extremadura.
It was in this context that Miguel Martins, president of the Iberian Inland Tourism Association, organizer of the congress, unveiled the first lines of a future tourist route dedicated to the famous television series “Game of Thrones” and with a broader focus on the prequel “House of the Dragon”, along four locations: Monsanto, Malpartida de Cáceres (Los Barruecos), Cáceres and Trujillo.
“This future tourist route is a way of uniting two regions and creating an identity and anchor that will help develop and promote these territories,” explained Miguel Martins. He believes that it will be possible to present a brand associated with this route, which should become known worldwide as “Game of Thrones”, although the name must be in English, guaranteeing greater projection for this tourist product and respecting the existing rights associated with the famous HBO series.
It should be added that the Diputación de Cáceres encompasses these three Spanish locations, having been the setting for the prequel “House of the Dragon” and the original “Game of Thrones” series.
The new route will be presented to tour operators during the World Inland Tourism Congress and Miguel Martins believes that the implementation of the project will attract many visitors who land in Madrid and continue by road to Lisbon and Oporto (and vice versa).
Confirming the impact of this type of initiative and the growth in visits already recorded since the television series premiered, Esther Gutiérrez, vice-president of the Diputación de Cáceres, considered the new route to be “a formidable idea, which could create a unique product” with the capacity, when promoted by both countries, to “increase tourist flows” to these inland territories.
For the time being, this is a private initiative project that could be supported by the respective tourism regions, inter-municipal communities and local authorities.
If the Spanish Extremadura had already been the stage for filming “Game of Thrones”, in Portugal the premiere took place in 2021, when the prequel “House of the Dragon” was filmed in Monsanto, in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, transforming the castle into the “Dragon Stone”. The series began airing on HBO in August 2022.
At the end of 2023, the Historical Village of Monsanto inaugurated a tourist route that shows the settings of the famous series: “Monsanto – House of the Dragon | Game of Thrones – Dragon’s Nest”. The installation of scenic lighting in the village and castle and a TOMI, a digital tool to support visitation, which combines the heritage of the historic village with the universe of “Game of Thrones” are some of the elements associated with the route created by the Idanha-a-Nova municipality.
The Historic Rock Village of Portugal