The REAL Nevermore Academy! Netflix hit show Wednesday was filmed at Romanian castle

It has become an instant hit with audiences from around the world who adore the brilliantly quirky Addams Family.

And now Wednesday, Tim Burton’s gloriously politically incorrect eight-part series about America’s favourite monster family, starring Jenna Ortega,  has broken a Nielsen record by becoming the series with the second biggest streaming week of all time.

The supernatural series starts with Wednesday being thrown out of school, so her parents, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman, decide to send her to their old school Nevermore Academy, which is just the place for outcasts. 

Scenes filmed at the school were actually captured at Cantacuzino Castle in Romania, a neo-Romanian palace built in 1911. 

Scenes from Netflix’s hit show Wednesday were filmed at Romanian castle Cantacuzino Castle, a palace built in 1911 (pictured, in the show) 

The carved stone castle is a tourist hot spot in the village of Bușteni in the Carpathian Mountains.

The 3,148-square-meter manor was built on the land of the Cantacuzino’s hunting lodge, and took almost 10 years to finish building. 

Designer by architect Grigore Cerchez, it features four pavilions and distinctive arcade balconies – many of which can be seen in the series.

The style was influenced by Romanian Brâncovenesc architecture, a late-17th- and early-18th-century style that mixed Byzantine, Ottoman, and late Renaissance details.

The carved stone castle is a tourist hot spot in the village of Bu¿teni in the Carpathian Mountains

The carved stone castle is a tourist hot spot in the village of Bușteni in the Carpathian Mountains

Designer by architect Grigore Cerchez, it features four pavilions and distinctive arcade balconies  (pictured,  the interior)

Designer by architect Grigore Cerchez, it features four pavilions and distinctive arcade balconies  (pictured,  the interior) 

It was completed in 1911, and became the summer home for aristocrat and politician Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino (pictured, another room in the property)

It was completed in 1911, and became the summer home for aristocrat and politician Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino (pictured, another room in the property) 

Meanwhile it is also surrounded by gardens, which contain a watch tower, a courtyard and stone alley ways leading to a family church and a number of fountains.  

It was completed in 1911, and became the summer home for aristocrat and politician Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino.

He was a descendant of Romanian rulers or Cantacuzino emperors of the Byzantine and was later named Prime Minister of Romania between 1899 – 1900 and during 1904-1907.

He was so wealthy, his nickname was Nababul, a French term used to describe extremely wealthy people.  

The supernatural series starts with Wednesday being thrown out of school, so her parents, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman, decide to send her to their old school Nevermore Academy, which is just the place for outcasts (pictured, Wednesday at Nevermore)

The supernatural series starts with Wednesday being thrown out of school, so her parents, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman, decide to send her to their old school Nevermore Academy, which is just the place for outcasts (pictured, Wednesday at Nevermore) 

However he didn’t have much opportunity to enjoy the home, dying there just two years after the castle was completed. 

The castle was nationalised during World War II, and  all of its original furnishings, art, and even light fixtures were looted. 

It was used as a hospital until president Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown in 1989.

It was only then that the castle was returned to Cantacuzino’s great granddaughter, Ioana Cantacuzino. 

Designer by architect Grigore Cerchez, it features four pavilions and distinctive arcade balconies - many of which can be seen in the series

Designer by architect Grigore Cerchez, it features four pavilions and distinctive arcade balconies – many of which can be seen in the series

The series creator Tim Burton was such a fan of the Romanian castle that he decided it would be the backdrop for the series

The series creator Tim Burton was such a fan of the Romanian castle that he decided it would be the backdrop for the series

The series creator Tim Burton was such a fan of the Romanian castle that he decided it would be the backdrop for the series (left, in real life, and right, the CGI-enhanced castle) 

While the spookiness of the building has been enhanced with CGI, it is remarkably similar to the property in the finished show

While the spookiness of the building has been enhanced with CGI, it is remarkably similar to the property in the finished show

While the spookiness of the building has been enhanced with CGI, it is remarkably similar to the property in the finished show (pictured left and right, the entrance in real life, and in the show) 

Fans of the series will be able to spot a number of filming locations at Cantacuzino Castle which feature in the show

Fans of the series will be able to spot a number of filming locations at Cantacuzino Castle which feature in the show

Fans of the series will be able to spot a number of filming locations at Cantacuzino Castle which feature in the show (left and right) 

In 2008, a German lawyer and property developer Kurt Neuschitzer bought the manor, hoping to transform it into a golf and ski resort.

However he is still waiting government approval for the development. 

Instead, he spent $3.1 million restoring the castle, adding in new electrical, plumbing, and heating systems. 

In 2015, he opened the Cantacuzino Castle Art Gallery, which has showcased the works of some of the world’s most prestigious artists.

Those who have been on show there include Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse.

In an interview with GoldDerby , production designer, Mark Scruton explained how they came to land on the location as the perfect filming spot for the series

In an interview with GoldDerby , production designer, Mark Scruton explained how they came to land on the location as the perfect filming spot for the series

In 2008, a German lawyer and property developer Kurt Neuschitzer bought the manor, hoping to transform it into a golf and ski resort

In 2008, a German lawyer and property developer Kurt Neuschitzer bought the manor, hoping to transform it into a golf and ski resort

Meanwhile other features – such as spiralling turrets – were supplemented by special effects.

According to series production designer Mark Scruton, the inspiration behind the effects was  Bucharest’s ‘eclectic pile of architecture.’

And the best news for fans of the series? The property remains open to tourists, who pay for tickets from £6 to visit the grounds. 

There is also dining at the Canta Cuisine restaurant, an adventure park, and private party rental.

Meanwhile it can even be hired out by super fans for weddings. 

In an interview with GoldDerby, production designer, Mark Scruton explained how they came to land on the location as the perfect filming spot for the series. 

The carved stone castle is a tourist hot spot in the village of Bu¿teni in the Carpathian Mountains (pictured, the view from the grounds)

The carved stone castle is a tourist hot spot in the village of Bușteni in the Carpathian Mountains (pictured, the view from the grounds) 

There a number of ways Wednesday fans can visit the castle, including dining at the stunning restaurant

There a number of ways Wednesday fans can visit the castle, including dining at the stunning restaurant 

He said: ‘There was a central column that Tim [Burton] really hooked in on that had that kind of Addams Family quality to it without it being a direct reference and I think that was a lynchpin for everything else.”’

And Tim told a Romanian radio station: ‘It was great to come here to Romania, because everything fit in a strange way in the universe of The Addams Family. 

‘Trying to make Romania look like Vermont was an interesting challenge, but we managed to find many new locations.’

The cast have waxed lyrical about the castle in interviews ahead of the series airing, with Jenna told Romanian news website Hot News: ‘I think the people there are wonderful and the place where our school is located (Nevermore Academy) is also very beautiful. 

The cast have waxed lyrical about the castle in interviews ahead of the series airing, with Jenna saying it fit 'very well with the aesthetic of the show'

The cast have waxed lyrical about the castle in interviews ahead of the series airing, with Jenna saying it fit ‘very well with the aesthetic of the show’

Scenes filmed at the school were captured at Cantacuzino Castle in Romania, a neo-Romanian palace built in 1911 (pictured, Lurch outside Nevermore in the series)

Scenes filmed at the school were captured at Cantacuzino Castle in Romania, a neo-Romanian palace built in 1911 (pictured, Lurch outside Nevermore in the series) 

‘It’s cool because we shot in real castles and one of the places we went to was Sinaia and it all looked Photoshopped.

‘I couldn’t even believe it, and it fit very, very well with the aesthetic of the show, so it was a great fit.’

Meanwhile Jenna’s co-star Emma Myers, who plays Enid Sinclair, told NME: ‘There were really great swings outside the castle that a lot of us went to play on in between [shooting different scenes].’

Seventy other locations were used in the country, as well as six huge soundstages where the local town of Jericho was built from scratch.

The Addams Family was created by cartoonist Charles Addams in the New Yorker magazine in 1938, and in 1964 the first live-action TV series premiered. 

Since then there have been films, cartoons, more TV series and an award-winning musical in 2010 that has become a favourite for high schools to put on – one of the reasons Netflix immediately gave this new version the green light. 

This latest adaptation is special not only because of the strength of its cast and its snappy writing, but also because it comes with the stamp of Oscar-winning director Burton in his first-ever TV series. He helped create the aesthetic of the show and also directed the first four episodes.

The producers scoured the globe to find their Wednesday, who had to have the right mix of confidence and mystery with a hint of heart. They landed on Jenna Ortega, 20, who found fame in Netflix thriller You. 

Read more: 

Woke mob slams Tim Burton’s smash hit Netflix Addams Family reboot Wednesday for casting black actors as bullies and owner of PILGRIM-themed amusement park 

Do YOU know where these famous scenes were filmed? Put your knowledge to the test with this tricky TV and movie location quiz 

Forget ‘jet-set’, now ‘SET-JET’ is all the rage – trips to movie and TV filming locations, from Emily in Paris to Ticket To Paradise 

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk