Girona to play the game of thrones
The Catalan city will be a location in the sixth season of HBO's hit series. Yet, questions remain unanswered, with fans wondering where in the fictional land of Westeros will it be set?
It is a dream come true. HBO's Game of Thrones (GoT) is coming to Catalonia in the autumn to film in Girona. ‘Dream' may seem an exaggeration but if you have been bitten by the GoT bug you'll understand. Some of us have it real bad. For many hardcore fans like myself the fantasy series created by George R.R. Martin has all but taken over our lives.
As with most all-consuming habits, it began out of curiosity. In 2011 I came across the first series of Game of Thrones by accident, watched the first episode, and after seeing a boy flung (presumably) to his death from a tall tower by a knight who was having an incestuous affair with his twin sister –the queen– I was hooked. This was fantasy as I had never seen it before.
In the weeks that followed I ate up each episode of the first series and once it had finished, moved on to the books that inspired it. Game of Thrones is the first novel in the series of books that make up the Song of Ice and Fire saga. So far Martin has written five, with the final two wrapping up the sprawling yarn still to come (George is not a particularly speedy writer and it is not unusual for there to be a five-year gap between novels).
In the meantime, though, we have had an annual dose of the TV version to enjoy. After devouring the –at the time four– books, I rewatched the first season that summer of 2011 and immediately went back to the books, listening to them this time as audiobooks. By the time I had finished, the fifth book was about to come out, as well as the second season. The rest, as they say, is history.
Girona, city of stone?
It is now 2015, the fifth season of the series is drawing to a close, there is still no sign of the sixth book, and we hear that Girona is going to be a location in the show next year. So far, few details have been made public but recent local reports do provide snatches of information. The news, though still unconfirmed, originally appeared on the Rac1 radio station from the president of the Endemol entertainment company, Jordi Bosch. We also know from unnamed sources close to the project that filming will take place from the end of August until September 21, while sources in the hostelry sector say that hundreds of hotel rooms have been booked up over this period.
Beyond that, however, we know little else for sure, although there is speculation that Girona will replace Seville as the location for the fictional region of Dorne, which made its debut this season. Reports suggest that the GoT programme makers have been unhappy with their experience in Andalusia. It is possible, but in the books (and to an extent in the show) Dorne is described as having more of a Mediterranean/North African feel, with hot sun and a sandy, mountainous landscape, a place replete with blood orange trees and deadly scorpions. Doesn't sound much like Girona to me.
Looking at the locations in the story that have so far not appeared on screen, a much more likely candidate for Girona to play is the city of Oldtown. Known as the “city of stone” in the story, Oldtown is the seat of the Citadel (Girona cathedral?), the university-like institution that trains the maesters who are allocated to each noble family to provide advice and technical and medical assistance to the lords of Westeros. Already this season, the character Sam has expressed his wish to become a maester and –SPOILER!– in the books, Sam is indeed sent to Oldtown to begin his studies so that he can later return to Castle Black and replace Aemon as the maester on the Wall. If you run a Google image search on “Oldtown” you will find a painting taken from the official Song of Ice and Fire card game that features the city, showing a skyline of monumental Medieval-style buildings and a river running through the centre spanned by half a dozen stone bridges.
Whether such speculation is right or wrong, we will discover in due course. I am in no hurry because speculating comes naturally to Martin's fans and, as the writer began his fantasy saga in 1992 and still hasn't finished, so does waiting.