The long-awaited prequel to Game of Thrones, 'House of the Dragon', premiered worldwide on August 22 on HBO. The fantasy series based on the novel 'Fire and Blood' by George R.R. Martin takes place about 200 years before the events narrated in the main series Game of Thrones.

While much of the filming of the series took place in the UK, there were also scenes filmed in both Portugal and Spain. The interior scenes for 'House of the Dragon' were reconstructed and filmed largely in England at Warner Bros Leavesden Studios in Watford. But it’s a different story for the exteriors, whose locations are distributed between Portugal, Spain and Cornwall.

Where in Portugal?

One of the most identifiable places where 'House of the Dragon' was filmed is the village of Monsanto, in Portugal. This is a fortress-town located at an altitude of 600 metres and dates back to the time of the Knights Templar.

Monsanto is a village located in Monsanto e Idanha-a-Velha, in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, District of Castelo Branco, Portugal. Monsanto would become popularly known as "the most Portuguese village of Portugal" due to a government-sponsored competition that awarded twelve historic villages the distinction of Most Portuguese Village of their own province in 1938.

Spanish locations

Spain was also the location of many of the scenes in "Game of Thrones", and also the setting for the prequel. The city of Cáceres in Extremadura, with its narrow and labyrinth of medieval streets, was used for the scenes set in King's Landing and is only a short distance from the Portuguese border.