Where Is The Great Filmed? (& Can You Visit?)
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1 year ago
Spoiler: it’s a palace
Whether occasionally true or almost entirely untrue, historical costume drama The Great is a satirical delight. Brits have to wait until 14 July to watch the new season, which Charity Wakefield calls ‘a gut wrenching season for many’. In our interview with Charity, who plays Georgina, she says: ‘We see Catherine put through the largest emotional test of her life. [Season 3] really asks whether she has the resilience and trust in herself to fight through and continue in this leadership role, whilst her personal life is falling apart.’ That said, she added that filming was ‘a lot of fun’. But where is The Great filmed? And can you visit? Here are all of the filming locations you need to know.
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The Great: Where Was It Filmed? (& Can You Visit?)
Courtesy of Lionsgate+.
Where Is The Great Filmed?
The Great is filmed in England and Italy across multiple stately homes and a colossal palace, despite being set in Russia. ‘We always hugely look forward to [filming in Italy],’ Charity tell us. ‘The pizza is unbelievable there!’
The Great Filming Locations
Royal Palace of Caserta. (Carlo Pelagalli, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Royal Palace of Caserta, Italy aka The Winter Palace
The cavernous Royal Palace of Caserta – situated in Caserta in the Campania region of Italy – plays the role of The Winter Palace in The Great. A late baroque, early neoclassical marvel, it’s an apt stand in for the real Winter Palace of St Petersburg, both being designed in the wake of Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Royal Palace of Caserta is the largest former royal residence in the world, heightening (perhaps exaggerating) the Russian indulgence seen in the loosely historical The Great.
Hatfield House. (Allan Engelhardt, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Hatfield House, Hertfordshire
Childhood home of Queen Elizabeth I, Hatfield House is fittingly regal but a tad less ostentatious than the Royal Palace of Caserta. That said, the interiors are a royal marvel; you might recognise the Long Gallery and The Marble Hall, which were used for filming The Great. The first filming location picked for the series, the first episode was filmed entirely at Hatfield House, before the palace was recreated at a set at 3 Mills TV studios in east London. You might also recognise Hatfield House from The Favourite (2018), co-written by Tony McNamara (writer and creator of The Great), or Netflix’s Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
3 Mills Studios
That’s right: The Salon, the Party Room, Catherine’s bed champers, Leo’s rooms in season one, and Aunt Elizabeth’s residence, these were all created in a studio, so sadly cannot be visited.
Castle Howard. (Pwojdacz via Wikimedia Commons, cropped)
Castle Howard, North Yorkshire
Another baroque masterpiece, Castle Howards is situated 15 miles from York, and is used as a stately backdrop in The Great – for example, when Catherine plays balls with the ladies of court.
Belvoir Castle. Julian Dowse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire
Plus, the interiors of Grantham’s Belvoir Castle are used to flesh out the interiors of The Great, including as a room for the ladies of court and a room where the Emperor and Empress breakfast.
St Clere Estate, Kent
The battle scenes of episodes five and seven in series one were filmed near Sevenoaks at the St Clere Estate.
Hever Castle. (Christoph Matthias Siebenborn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Hever Castle, Kent
Plus, nearby, Hever Castle’s Loggia Terrace was used for filming episode eight, in which Catherine and Peter meet the Swedish royals.
Hampton Court Palace. (James Park-Watt, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Hampton Court Palace, London
In season two of The Great, further palace-based filming took place at Hampton Court Palace – a popular filming location also seen in The Theory of Everything, Cinderella, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!, The Favourite, Bridgerton and, most recently, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
Moving into season three, viewers can expect a cameo from the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, which is where the Nakaz conference was filmed.
Featured image: Royal Palace of Caserta. (Carlo Pelagalli, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
