The fictional country of Sokovia was shot in several different locations around Europe. What’s great about the HYDRA Research facility is that it’s a real castle in the Aosta Valley in Italy.
LOCATION: HYDRA Research Facility (EXT: Fort Bard, Aosta Valley, Italy; INT: Dover Castle, Dover, UK)
SHOW: Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015
The opening of Age of Ultron shows the Avengers fighting their way through HYDRA forces in the Sokovian woods, en route to an old castle used by HYDRA. Iron Man is finally able to penetrate their defenses and steal the Chitauri scepter. This castle, in a fictitious country, is not just made up of pixels, it’s a real place called Fort Bard.
Fort Bard is an Italian outpost that is located at the entrance to the Aosto Valey, and once protected the valley from invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops. It has been renovated and is currently a museum named the “Museum of the Alps.”
One might assume that shooting at such a location for the exteriors, that the interiors would also be filmed at the same place. I mean, this is an old Fort; the inside has to be stoney, and old as well. Sometimes, different locations must be used for exteriors and interiors for various reasons. Whatever the reason, the castle’s interiors were filmed at Dover Castle in the UK.
Dover Castle is the largest Castle in England, and located in Dover, right on the strait of Dover in the English Channel. It’s currently an historic monument, but has been used throughout the centuries as a military stronghold (it was built in the 11tch Century). The military tunnels and other portions of the facility were used to show the interiors of the HYDRA facility.
Interestingly enough, other parts of Sokovia were filmed in both England and Italy – spliced together to form the woods of the country as well as the capital Novi Grad. Look for future installments of MCU: Location Scout where we will explore these sites, or check out the link to the MCU Map below!
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Behind every scene in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a location. Some are iconic. Some are functional. Some are completely fantastic. But all of them are there to support the story.
Here at the MCU: Location Scout, Jovial Jay digs deep to uncover the real-world filming locations behind your favorite super hero films. From Iron Man to Inhumans and everything in between!
Having grown up on comics, television and film, “Jovial” Jay feels destined to host podcasts and write blogs related to the union of these nerdy pursuits. Among his other pursuits he administrates and edits stories at the two largest Star Wars fan sites on the ‘net (Rebelscum.com, TheForce.net), and co-hosts the Jedi Journals podcast over at the ForceCast network.