Klis Fortress

Klis Fortress is a historic stronghold rising above the village of Klis, northeast of Split in Croatia. Its position on the narrow mountain pass between Kozjak and Mosor gave it enormous strategic importance, controlling one of the main routes between the Dalmatian coast and the interior. Fortifications existed here long before the medieval period, but Klis first appears in written Croatian history in 852 as the court of Prince Trpimir I and later developed into an important royal castle. Over the following centuries it passed between numerous rulers before becoming one of the most important Croatian defensive positions against the advancing Ottoman Empire. Captain Petar Kružić and the Uskoks held Klis against repeated attacks for more than two decades, but Kružić was killed and the fortress fell to the Ottomans in 1537. It remained under Ottoman control for 111 years before Venetian forces captured it in 1648 and substantially rebuilt and enlarged its defences. Austria took control after the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, interrupted by a period of French rule between 1805 and 1813, and the fortress continued to have a military function into the 20th century. Its present appearance reflects many of these different periods, with successive defensive walls, bastions, gates and the Church of St. Vitus, which was built as a mosque after the Ottoman conquest and converted into a church following the Venetian takeover.

Klis Fortress has appeared in Eagle in a Cage (1971) and Game of Thrones (2011–2019). Eagle in a Cage (1971) takes the fortress far from Dalmatia by using it as part of the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his final years in exile. Game of Thrones (2011–2019) gives Klis a very different identity, transforming its walls and rocky hillside into the slave city of Meereen during Daenerys Targaryen’s campaign through Slaver’s Bay. The series made considerably more extensive use of the fortress, with Klis appearing in several important Meereen scenes during seasons four and five.

In Eagle in a Cage (1971), Klis Fortress forms part of Saint Helena, the remote island where Napoleon Bonaparte is held by the British following his defeat at Waterloo. Kenneth Haigh plays Napoleon, with Ralph Richardson as the island’s governor Sir Hudson Lowe and John Gielgud as Lord Sissal. Rather than concentrating on Napoleon’s military career, the film follows the defeated emperor during his confinement and explores his relationships with the British authorities and the small circle surrounding him. The production was originally expected to be filmed in Italy but ultimately moved to Yugoslavia, with shooting taking place around Split and at Klis Fortress in 1969. The fortress and its stark rocky surroundings help create the isolated military environment of Saint Helena, with the heavy stone walls, exposed slopes and enclosed spaces reinforcing the feeling that Napoleon is living inside a prison even when he is technically able to move around outside. Klis is therefore not simply used for an establishing view, but as part of the physical world surrounding Napoleon during his exile.

In Game of Thrones (2011–2019), Klis Fortress becomes the exterior of Meereen, the largest of the three great slave cities conquered by Daenerys Targaryen during her journey through Slaver’s Bay. Its first prominent appearance comes in the season-four episode “Breaker of Chains” (2014), when Daenerys arrives outside Meereen with the Unsullied, the freed slaves who have joined her and her advisers. The real fortress provides the high walls from which the people and Great Masters of Meereen look down on Daenerys and her army, while digital effects greatly expand Klis into the much larger city seen on screen. Not every part of the sequence was filmed here – the ground outside Meereen and the confrontation in which Daario Naharis defeats the city’s champion were filmed elsewhere – but the steep stone fortifications of Klis form the recognisable core of Meereen’s exterior.

Klis Fortress appears again in Game of Thrones (2011–2019) after Daenerys has taken control of Meereen. In “Oathkeeper” (2014), the fortress walls are used during the brutal aftermath of the conquest, when Daenerys orders 163 of the city’s Great Masters crucified in retaliation for the 163 enslaved children who had been killed and displayed along the road to Meereen. Klis returns in “The Mountain and the Viper” (2014), where Barristan Selmy receives the document revealing that Jorah Mormont had originally been spying on Daenerys for King Robert Baratheon, a discovery that leads to Jorah being confronted and banished. One of the fortress’s clearest later appearances comes in the season-five finale “Mother’s Mercy” (2015). Tyrion Lannister stands on the outer walls watching Jorah and Daario Naharis leave Meereen to search for the missing Daenerys when Varys unexpectedly appears beside him. Their conversation turns towards the difficult task of restoring order to the city, effectively beginning the partnership that will see Tyrion and Varys attempt to govern Meereen in Daenerys’s absence. The production combined Klis with locations in and around Split, including Diocletian’s Palace, to create different parts of Meereen, while digital pyramids, buildings and mountains transformed the relatively compact Croatian fortress into one of the largest cities in the fictional world.

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