The crew is at the place already, so it seems....

https://twitter.com/Markgatiss/status/1102621252525744129

 

I take it it's cold there, judging by the warm coats, hats and facial hair .

So, I made my trip to Banská Štiavnica to see the setting of the new Dracula series last week.
 
My journey was somewhat adventurous because Banská Štiavnica is a bit hard to approach and when you travel there you can see right away why that is: the city is situated in the heart of the wild mountains and the bus creeps there carefully through sharp serpentines surrounded by steep ravines, through harsh rocks and through romantic and deep forests. Here and there, you can see the mysterious portals, gates or simple bolted doors leading underground and the ruins of old, solitary buildings – the relics of former mining industry that flourished in the area up to the recent times. Occassional villages, hotels and even blocks of flats are beautifully hidden in that natural paradise and are very picturesque. They must be inhabited by the very bold people too, because they are surrounded by wilderness on all sides. All in all, there´s something positively vampiric about the place on its own – the filmmakers should use this area for the outdoor settings instead of Orava, I think.
 
When you go off the bus at the little bus stand in Banská Štiavnica, at first you don´t see anything remarkable, because this part of town is modern and the buildings are just the ordinary stuff you´ll find everywhere on the world. When you set off up the main road to the old town, the first historical buildings look kind of shabby and the pavement is “Victorian Era revival” that tends to disappear of dissolve into a muddy lawn all of a sudden. But this impression is quite misleading, because in fact, Banska Štiavnica is a stunningly beautiful town. It´s historical part has a wonderfully preserved atmosphere of old times, the buildings retained their former shape and unique charm and the touch of German architecture they were once famous for. The mining relics are everywhere and there is a huge net of mining tunnels under the streets – you can see their portals peeking at you from the most unexpected of places.
 
The Old Castle greets you very early on, neatly visible behind the buildings:



The heart of the old town comprises of the Old Townhouse and the Church of Saint Catherine. There, by the Church, I discovered the first traces of the filmmakers:




 

I sneaked all around the castle to get some photographs. At first I used the unusual approach from the upper, forest path and I discovered “The Green Room” right away.





There was no one around. The cast and crew are indeed invisible, or they use the old mines for their travel, like dvarves, so it seems.



I made some pictures of the Old Castle from that side.





No BBC presence was visible, but the sounds of the hammer beating against the wood were heard distinctly. The stakes, maybe?
 
https://twitter.com/Markgatiss/status/1103601957724454912
 

Right under the Old Castle, there are the stairs leading back to the Saint Catherine´s Church. I discovered the production room there:




I peeked inside to see, if I can spot some people inside, but I was surprised to see something like the third floor of the small courtyard surrounded by rooms on all sides and the bridge leading to another door.

The production room once again, from the way down:



And back at the church again:





And after a day of good work, I visited a nice pizza house right in the vicinity of the BBC restaurant, where the sympathetic and ever-smiling staff served me a very good, tasty schnitzel and a bottle of wonderful Red Traminer.



It was a daring trip, but it came off well and it was worth every penny!

 

Cool and thank you.

Yitzock wrote:

Thanks for sharing your photos, nakahara! I really enjoyed reading your description of your journey, too. It sounds like fun. I don't know if I would have been able to do the same. I might have been afraid of getting caught if I were in your position.

There was not any risk of that, believe me. 
Every area I photographed was open to the public and because there were school holidays in that part of Slovakia, plenty of people with their kids roamed around. The Old Castle was only guarded by security because of their cars and technical equipment, but they didn´t care if you loitered around. The Old Castle is the real fortress, its walls were a secure protection for the filmmakers inside, so there was no real chance for any oglers to disturb them - and so the security guys were pretty cool about it if you made some pics outside the sets. 

And another instagram, dated 6-th of March:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuqxU2en2dg/
 

Great pics.

I cannot get rid of the feeling that so far it is mainly them who are hyping the show. Of course I will give it a chance once it airs but compared to Sherlock there is not much excitement. What I am really curious about is what the difference to previous adaptations will be. With Sherlock it was easy - modernisation in every possible way, a 21st century Holmes. But they are doing a period Dracula. Different POV maybe?