When you’re watching an epic like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter you might wonder how they create those amazing buildings you see in those beautiful wide shots. Did they find a replacement? Did they build it? Is it CG?

In a lot of cases, the answer is that the building is a miniature. Well, they’re actually only a miniature if you compare them to the true scale of the building. Hogwarts was a miniature, and it took 86 artist a couple years to build it. If you add up all the years the artist spent on it it would have taken 74 years. And it’s not even a real building.

The castle was used in every film and is 50 feet wide and houses 2,500 fiber optic lights to simulate torches and students passing through the inside. There are even miniature owls on the castle.

The castle required that amount of detail because to simulate the size of a real castle the details have to be extreme, otherwise the fact that it’s a miniature quickly becomes apparent.

The castle is on display as part of the The Making of Harry Potter studio tour at Leavesden Studios near Watford, England. The three hour tour will also take visitors to the Great Hall, Dumbledore’s office, Diagon Alley, the Gryffindor common room, the boys’ dormitory, Hagrid’s hut, potion’s classroom and Professor Umbridge’s office at the Ministry of Magic. Yup, it’s a Harry Potter fans’ wet dream. [The Daily Mail]

harry potter, hogwarts, special effects