If you’re one of the millions of people who have already binged Tim Burton’s record-breaking Netflix series Wednesday, you likely noticed its remarkable production design, specifically the hauntingly beautiful castle that serves as the private school Jenna Ortega’s title character attends.
In the series, Nevermore Academy is the institution Wednesday Addams’ parents send her when she gets expelled from her public school for trying to feed the water polo team to a bunch of nippy piranhas. Nevermore Academy is also a real place – not something built on a studio backlot in Hollywood.
Instead, Burton shot Wednesday in Romania, the location of the real castle that is used to depict the school that “nurtures outcasts, freaks and monsters.” Cantacuzino Castle is in Bușteni, Romania, near the Bucegi Mountains. Construction of the castle was completed in 1911 by architect Grigore Cerchez. The castle served as the summer home of Prince Grigore Cantacuzino until 1930. After WWII, it is said to have housed a sanatorium. Since 2010, the castle has been privately owned and open to the public.
“We looked at a lot of different castles and palaces and environments to base [Nevermore Academy] on,” Wednesday production designer Mark Scruton told Gold Derby. “We ended up with Cantacuzino, which is the one you see in the show, and really there was not a lot of it left by the time we finished adding and enhancing and moving around with it. We used the location for about three or four days.”
It was recently announced that Wednesday premiered with 3.73 million viewers in the U.K. while The Crown pulled down 2.81 million. Out of all those millions, we wonder how many are adding Romania to their list of vacation destinations.