US
Anticipating a surge of interest when “Downton Abbey: The Movie” is released in theaters in September, Collette (America’s oldest surviving tour company) is offering a tour of Highclere Castle — the aristocratic home in Hampshire, England, that is featured as the setting for Downton Abbey, both the cable TV series that aired from 2010 to 2015 and the theater release scheduled for September.
While the Downton Abbey series portrays an aristocratic home that is struggling to maintain itself after the Old World order of the aristocracy has fallen during World War I, the actual owners of Highclere Castle have been able to sustain their ancestral home through funding from film and tourism.
Highclere Castle is owned by the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, who have turned their historic family home into an international icon via its filmic immortalization as Downton Abbey. They have also turned the castle into a tourist attraction that is a magnet for countless fans of the TV series. The theater release of the new Downton Abbey movie will no doubt spread the castle’s fame even farther. Read More.
