Minčeta Tower

This is the crown of Dubrovnik's defences — literally and figuratively. Minčeta Tower sits at the highest point of the city walls, its massive circular form visible from almost everywhere in the Old Town. It is the most recognisable silhouette in Dubrovnik after the rooftops themselves, and it was deliberately designed to intimidate anyone approaching from the north.

Construction began in 1319 with a square tower designed by local architect Nicifor Ranjina. But after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 sent shockwaves through every Mediterranean city-state, the Republic decided the original wasn't nearly menacing enough. They brought in Juraj Dalmatinac, Croatia's most celebrated Renaissance architect, who wrapped the square tower in a massive circular shell with walls so thick they absorbed cannonballs like punches to a heavyweight boxer. After Dalmatinac's death, Michelozzo di Bartolomeo — the same Florentine architect working on the rest of the walls — completed the crown-shaped top with its distinctive Gothic crenellations.

The result is a tower that looks like a stone crown placed on the city's head. From the top, the views are extraordinary: the entire Old Town spreads below like a scale model, with the Adriatic beyond and the mountains of the Dalmatian coast stretching into the distance. It is the highest walkable point on the walls and the spot where most visitors stop longest, for obvious reasons.

Game of Thrones fans will recognise Minčeta as the exterior of the House of the Undying, where Daenerys searches for her stolen dragons in Season 2. The tower's brooding medieval presence required almost no set dressing — it already looked like a place where sorcerers might live.