Filming Locations Guide: Where was A Discovery of Witches filmed? The Castle & the House

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A Discovery of Witches was filmed on location in England, Wales, and Italy.

Halfway between Twilight and Harry Potter, this fantasy series, now back for the third season, is based on the 2011 best-selling novel by Deborah Harkness.

Where is A Discovery of Witches filmed

Diana Bishop (played by Teresa Palmer) is a historian descended from witches, who will team up with vampire Matthew Goode (Matthew Clairmont) to unravel the secrets of an Oxford's Bodleian Library mysterious manuscript, the Ashmole 782.

The couple will engage in a forbidden romance, living in a world unaware of the existence of beings like them.

Welcome to our guide to the filming locations of A Discovery of Witches.

A Discovery of Witches location
The stunning architecture of Oxford, the so-called city of dreaming spires, served as the perfect backdrop for many exterior scenes.

Pictured, the Radcliffe Camera circular library, featured in several scenes.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Tejvan Pettinger - Map


Ashmole 782 Library Oxford
Diana and Mathew first meet at the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford, one of the oldest libraries in Europe.

However, the interior hall of this library and the Bishop House were filmed in a painstakingly recreated set at Cardiff's Bad Wolf Studios. A Discovery of Witches was the first production to be filmed in this new facility in Wales.


College Oxford scenes
The exterior scenes of the college in Oxford were filmed at Exeter College.

In the first episode, there is a scene with Matthew on the Folly Bridge over the River Thames.

The series was also filmed at Brown's Café and in the Covered Market. Some of the places that are featured in the novel include All Souls College, New College, Blackwell's Bookshop, and the iconic Bridge of Sighs.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map


Cafe terrace scene
Local newspaper Bristol Post reports that the crew filmed at several locations in Bristol, including The Rummer restaurant in All Saints Lane (first episode, pictured), the Harbour Hotel, Highbury Vaults pub, and Deanery Road.
Image courtesy of Sky One and Google Maps


Matthew room in the college
The official Visit Wales website states that the Victorian Gothic mansion Insole Court in Llandaff (Cardiff) served as Matthew Clairmont’s chambers at All Souls College.

This location is almost as cool as the What We Do in the Shadows house. Cardiff Market was also used as an additional filming spot.
Image courtesy of David Meenagh - Map


Sept-Tours castle
The Aberglasney House garden in Llangathen (Carmarthenshire) is the Sept-Tours castle courtyard in France.

The scenes set in Scotland were filmed near Llyn y Fan Fach lake in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales.
Image courtesy of Sky One and Gareth Lovering - Maps: Aberglasney House / Brecon Beacons


The Carew Castle in ruins
In the 6th episode, Diana meets fellow witch Satu (played by Malin Buska) in the ruins of the 13th-century Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Image courtesy of Sky One and Simon Redwood - Map

Filming Locations in Italy

The Congregation Venice house
The Congregation stronghold’s exterior is the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The Palladian Cloisters of this Benedictine monastery, now part of the Cini Foundation, are also featured in the series.

However, some interior rooms of the scenes set in Venice were filmed in the studios in Wales.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map


The Congregation palace
The grand meeting hall of the powerful Congregation is inspired by the Pantheon vault in Rome.
Image courtesy of Sky One and Sean O'Neill - Map


Vampire house in Venice
The vampire's palace home of Gerbert D’Aurillac, Domenico, and Juliette is the Palazzo Contarini Polignac.

The entrance is the Gallerie dell'Accademia near the Ponte dell'Accademia bridge over the Grand Canal.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map

The A Discovery of Witches Sept-Tours Castle

Discovery of Witches Castle
The exterior of the Clermont family ancestral home, the Sept-Tours Castle, was filmed in the Castle of Monselice (Castello Cini), located in the Veneto region.

The towers and many architectural elements and details of the fortress were added using CGI effects.
Image courtesy of Sky One and Google Maps


Sept-Tours Castle
The dining hall and the interior rooms of the Sept-Tours palace follow the same design as the noble rooms of the Italian castle, but everything was filmed on a soundstage back in Wales.


St Lucien French town
The village of Arquà Petrarca doubled as the fictional town of St. Lucien, which in the novels Deborah Harkness placed in Auvergne (France).

Filming took place at the Santissima Trinità oratory, Francesco Petrarca's house, and the neighboring streets.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map


Seelen der Nacht drehort
Diana's aunt's house, Sarah and Emily, was also filmed in the countryside in Wales, although in the book it is located in Madison County, New York (United States).

The New Season 2 Locations

Book of Life Oxford
The series returned to Oxford for season two. Phoebe's office exterior (played by Adelle Leonce) is located in the History of Science Museum, the building with carved stone busts outside, next to the Sheldonian Theatre.

The interior is one of the committee rooms in the Glamorgan Building at Cardiff University.

Episode 10 also briefly features the exterior of the Randolph Hotel on Beaumont St in Oxford.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Maps: Museum / Cardiff / Hotel

Location in Bristol
Marcus Whitmore's house (played by Edward Bluemel) in Oxford is actually located at 6 Berkeley Square in Bristol.

The Bristol Film Office confirmed that the interior of the house was also filmed here on location.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map

The A Discovery of Witches House

The 1590 London set
Season two finds Matthew and Diana in Elizabethan London, hiding in time from the Congregation. The producers found a 16th-century country house called Plas Machen in Lower Machen near Newport (Wales).

The manor had several old barns nearby, ideal for building the street and the interiors of the London set.

This location had been previously used to film scenes of the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Who series.
This wonderful aerial image is by courtesy of Bob Morgans - Map

The Witch Council
The house of the Witch’s Council is the 15th-century medieval mansion Tretower Court and Castle (Llys a Chastell Tre-tŵr) in Wales.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map

The castle in Bohemia
Atlas of Wonders has tracked down the location of Rudolf's castle, nestled amidst mountains in Bohemia: The Prösels Castle (or Presule) is a Gothic complex featuring Renaissance paintings situated near Bolzano in the Italian South Tyrol region.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map

Queen Elizabeth chamber
The Queen Elizabeth's chamber is the dazzling Chapter House at Wells Cathedral. This 13th-century wonder is an octagonal room with a ribbed vault supported on a central column, often likened to a palm tree.

In the first and second episodes of season two, the cloister was filmed at Gloucester Cathedral.

Also, some interior sets like the room in the palace where Queen Elizabeth I (Barbara Marten) holds court, were built at the Bad Wolf Studios in Cardiff
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map


Wogan Cavern in Pembroke Castle
In the ninth episode, Kit and Louisa take Diana to a secluded dungeon. This scene was filmed at the Wogan Cavern, a vast natural cave located beneath the Pembroke Castle in South Wales.

The beach is the Rhossili Bay in Gower Peninsula (Wales), with the Mont Saint-Michel added via CGI. This is the same beach featured in the Britannia series.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map

The New Season 3 Locations

Season 3 Locations
The exterior of Chris' laboratory in London is the Imperial College in South Kensington.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map


The house in Mayfar
The house in Mayfar, London, was actually filmed at 38 Queen Square in Bristol.
Image courtesy of HBO - Map


Hubbard's of Houndsditch
The court building in New Orleans, Louisiana, was filmed at Cardiff University's Glamorgan Building, a former county hall in Cathays Park.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map


A Discovery of Witches New Orleans
As WalesOnline reported, the colonial-style house was built in front of Cardiff University's Main Building.

There is an establishing shot of the graveyard filmed at the Coliseum Street entrance of historic Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, although these scenes were probably filmed somewhere else in Wales.
Image courtesy of HBO - Maps: Cardiff University / Cemetery


Ransome bar
The dark bar of the vampires and Ransome in New Orleans is the Barocco Wales restaurant at 12 Wharton Street, located in the center of Cardiff.
Image courtesy of HBO - Map


Defensible Barracks in Pembroke Dock
The abandoned fortress in Chelm in the Lublin region of Poland (near the border with Ukraine and Belarus) was filmed at the Defensible Barracks in Pembroke Dock.

Also known as the VR 1844, the thick forest surrounding this Victorian-era fortification, built in the mid-1840s, was CGI'd into the scene.
Image courtesy of Sky One - Map

Stay tuned for season 3 updates on this page!

Can you help to improve this article about the filming locations of A Discovery of Witches? To complete and correct this report, any feedback, info, or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!

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17 comments:

1- AOB - January 27, 2019 at 3:47 PM
I have looked on Google Maps and found that Gerbert's palazzo is specifically the Contarini Polignac, just a couple of buildings east of the Accademia bridge on the Dorsoduro side of the canal. Its website shows some interior views which are identifiable as the vestibule where Juliette greets Domenico in episode 2 or 3, and playing with Street View will show that the second floor (2nd to the USA, 1st to Europeans) balcony is also used for a scene in a later episode.

      Reply
      2- Ra Moon - January 28, 2019 at 5:10 AM
      Thank you, updated!

3- Anonymous - January 13, 2021 at 4:07 AM
Where was the scene in Ep 10 filmed, the round room scene with Queen Elizabeth?

      Reply
      4- Cameron U. - January 17, 2021 at 4:42 PM
      Wells Cathedral in England: The Chapter House.

5- Anonymous - January 19, 2021 at 4:15 AM
Phoebe's office is actually in one of the Committee rooms of the Glamorgan Building of Cardiff University. The external view is of the History of Science Museum in Oxford next door to the Sheldonian Theatre.

6- Anonymous - January 20, 2021 at 1:41 PM
The large room that Diana learned her weaving surrounded by the other witched (series 2) Where was this filmed? Is it real or the wolf set in Wales?

      Reply
      7- Anonymous - January 21, 2021 at 11:24 AM
       I believe this is Tretower Court in Powys, South Wales

8- Anonymous - March 16, 2021 at 4:19 AM
Does anyone know where they filmed the underground prison scene where Diana takes the book from Kelly (in 'Bohemia')?

9- Anonymous - March 29, 2021 at 6:36 PM
Does anyone know where Matthew's house in season 1 episode 3 is? Where he takes Diana for a day?

10- Anonymous - June 25, 2021 at 8:34 AM
The views from the Bohemian Castle and surroundings are definitely from the Italian Seiser Alm mountain range (near Kastelruth, Sud-Tirol).

11- Andy - Jan 11, 2022, 12:48 AM
I'm curious about the laboratory in series three. The art deco ceiling looks reminiscent of Senate House, London, but I can't find an image that matches. Any info?

12- Anonymous - Feb 1, 2022, 5:24 PM
I am really curious where they filmed TJ Weston's house in Season 3 Episode 4. Does anyone know the actual house that was filmed?

13- Anonymous - May 2, 2022, 2:33 PM
I'm sure the New Orleans bar with the staircase is actually the bar Barocco in Cardiff. It may be renamed now, but it was a Brains pub on one of the small streets between St. Mary's Street and The Hague.

   Reply
   14- Ra Moon - May 2, 2022, 22:44 PM
   That's great, thank you!

15- Anonymous - Feb 1, 2022, 5:24 PM
Does anyone know what bar they filmed in, season one episode one with Matthew and Marcus?

16- Kali - Sep 13, 2022, 11:24 AM
Does anyone know if the cloister where we see the Congregation members sometimes (right outside their reunion room) is really on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore? Or is it in another location or studio?

17- MilesT - Dec 28, 2022, 7:27 AM
Atlantic College was also used for some interior scenes in S2.


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