While many associate hit US television series Game of Thrones with icy, snowy vistas, it has been confirmed that the programme will be once again shot under the warm Spanish sunshine. 

Spanish television channel Canal Plus has confirmed that the sixth series of the epic fantasy drama will be shot in the Catalan city of Girona, with local newspaper Diari de Girona reporting that producers have already booked 160 hotel rooms in the city to accommodate cast and crew.

While Girona was widely rumoured to be high on the list of filming locations for series six, the Spanish television channel made a surprise announcement that the picturesque town of Peñíscola would also star in the next series of Game of Thrones. 

The town is already drawing increasing interest from tourists thanks to a new Ryanair route between the former ghost airport of Castellón and London and Bristol in the UK and will no doubt draw in plenty of visitors now it is destined to star in Game of Thrones. 

The ten films you never knew were shot in Spain

It is not the first time producers have opted to film in Spain; series five of Game of Thrones was partly shot in the south of the country, including in Seville’s Alcazar palace.

According to Catalan daily, La Vanguardia, producers are hoping to shoot in Girona’s famous cathedral as well as the city’s Jewish quarter, Call Jueu.

Production is tipped to take place in September or October 2015, after the crowds from the busy summer months have died down and is set to take around three weeks.

HBO was slow to confirm its shooting plans because of the fanfare surrounding the filming of series five of Game of Thrones in Seville. The set was besieged by fans after the television company announced that filming was taking place in the Andalusian city, something producers no doubt wanted  to avoid in Girona.

The news will be welcomed by Girona, which will likely see a boost in tourism as a result of being chosen as a location for the hit series. Tour companies began offering tours of its locations in Andalusia soon after filming wrapped in 2014.

Game of Thrones is by no means the first worldwide hit to be shot in Spain. It has been a favourite location of filmmakers for many years, with everything from Hollywood spaghetti westerns to Star Wars and Indiana Jones being shot in Spain.