Flo's History

  This post will be the final episode of my Hogwarts series. Lacock Abbey and New College were used to shoot Professor Snap's lab in Harry Potter 1 and 2 as well as the courtyard in Harry Potter 3. L acock Abbey, Ela's Masterpiece Located east of the city of Bristol, Lacock Abbey was constructed in 1232 by the third countess of Salisbury, Ela. Her childhood was rather harsh, but we lack details about it compared to her later life. Early in her life, she was smuggled to Normandy by her mother, Eleonore de Vitre. Though the reasons are not very clear, it is likely she did so to protect her daughter from her uncle Philip who was probably trying to get the title of Count of Salisbury from the underaged girl. Family bonds at the time usually meant a lot less when power and money got in the way! The life of Ela Countess of Salisbury ] As good intentions as she had, Ela's mother forgot the crucial detail of the girl being the ward of King Richard I, who was the head of the Angevin...

  Following last week’s post, we continue with the second most prominent location used to stage the wizard school Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series. Appearing in the first three movies of the franchise, this cathedral from the northern part of England was used not only for exterior shots like Alnwick Castle but also for interior shots. Pre-Cathedral This cathedral was built in a city called Durham (obviously), as Bishop Aldhun consecrated the area. Any non-religious person, like me, knows that “consecrating” a place is pretty much declaring it holy ground. This was done to house the remains of Saint Cuthbert from the Danes. Great Britain was still in the process of suffering an existential crisis from the Danelaw and, therefore, became a prime ground for raids. This proved to be somewhat effective, and Wessex would ultimately expel the Danes from Great Britain shortly after anyways. All was well until a certain Norman Conqueror crashed the place and built the originally named D...

  Hogwarts castle is probably one of the most iconic locations in the Harry Potter franchise. And, of course, the movie series didn’t disappoint in capturing the majestic atmosphere of the wizard school. Now, enough with the magical world of wizards! Let’s return to the dull reality where we are all muggles without any supernatural power. Even if it seems like an excellent tool for dealing with daily chores (like Molly Weasley showed us), considering the amount of harm we can do already is enough to make me grateful we don’t have magic. Seriously can you imagine the disaster we would create if we could teleport and shoot fireballs? Returning to today’s post, Hogwarts may be an entirely imaginary place, but it was filmed in real castles. After all, especially in the earlier movies, CGI was nowhere near as widespread as it is now. Alnwick Castle Let’s start with the OG location of our wizard school. Used in the first two movies, the Alnwick Castle gave us a much closer look at Hogwar...