Houses of Parliament - Strahov monastery, Prague

In Casino Royale, after Bond has killed Mollaka the Bomb maker at the embassy in Madagascar, M is summoned to appear in front of a committee in the Houses of Parliament. Bond's actions are questioned by the committee and they hold M responsible. M and Villiers are walking through what appears to be the Houses of Parliament after the meeting. 

The scene in the film pictures the Parliament and then cuts to the Committee room where M and Villiers are walking out.

"Christ I miss the cold war!"

The library, however, is not located in London, but in a monastery in Prague. The hall where M and Villiers are walking through is called the Philosophical Hall, and can be found at the Strahov Monastery. The monastery was founded in 1143 and the Philosophical Hall dates back to the late 1700's. The entire hall was totally renovated between 2009-2010.

The Philosophical Hall is open for the public, but only through the main entrance. If you want to walk through the halls you need to call ahead and book a tour. Due to the temperature changes only small groups are allowed in the hall a the same time. The film team probably managed to film there due to the fact that the hall were to be renovated a few years later.

In the adjacent room to the Philosophical Hall, a fake wall with the committee room entrance was put up. It is quite obvious that the walls with the red wallpaper are backdrops. Especially when you look through the room in the background.

Bookshelves from the Theological Hall can be seen in the background 

In the far background you can see a very small part of the the Theological Hall which is another library located parallel to the Philosophical Hall in the monastery.

Theological Hall

"I give Bond 00 status and he celebrates by shooting up an embassy! Is the man deranged?!"

Pendolino train to Casino Royale in Montenegro

Bond and Vesper are traveling to Montenegro for the poker game at Casino Royale. Vesper is contacting Bond in the restaurant car with the brilliant recognition code "I'm the money". The background story to the film states that Bond is suppose to trade place with Mr Arlington Beech on a station in Switzerland and travel down to Montenegro in his stead. This scene was however not relevant for the film.

As Bond and Vesper are enjoying their dinner in the restaurant car, the train passes a station with the name ''Chur Ost''. Chur is a city in the western part of Switzerland and although Chur West is a real station, Chur Ost does not exist. Apparently Chur is known as the oldest town in Switzerland. It is a contradiction that it says 'Montenegro' in the first scene, but you probably have to read into it that the train is on route for Montenegro, since (given the size of Montenegro) it is very unlikely that they would have time for dinner and a good nights sleep, before arriving at their destination the next morning if they were already in the country by time for dinner.

The Pendolino at Prague central station. Picture from Wikipedia.

In reality however, the train is not operating between Switzerland and Montenegro at all, since this is the Czech Railways' Pendolino fast train, also known as the ČD Class 680, operating between Prague, Slovakia and Austria.

The only indication that this train is connected to Montenegro is the fact that the logo has been changed from ČD, which is the Czech Railways symbol, to MEFT. The meaning of MEFT is unclear, but you can assume that the M stands for Montenegro.



"The treasury has agreed to stake you in the game."

The Czech Railways ordered the Pendolino train in 2000 and the first set of trains were delivered in late 2004. However a number of problems delayed it from entering into regular service for another year. The train entered regular service between Prague and Ostrava in December 2005. Today the Czech Railways' Pendolino trains operate routes between Prague and Ostrava, Bratislava and Vienna respectively.

Bond is having lamb for dinner and together with Vesper he shares a bottle of Château Angelus 1981. Also on the table are two bottles of Evian mineral water. They are in seat 47 and 44 respectively. I have not yet had the opportunity to try the Pendolino in the Czech Republic, but I doubt that they will stock 30 year old wines and serve well skewered lamb onboard.

"-How was your lamb?
           -Skewered. One sympathizes..."

The beautiful train curve is located in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, on the route between the cities Pardubice and Olomouc, more specifically just outside the city of Ústí nad Orlicí.


The train scene is definitely one of the many highlights in Casino Royale.

The Venice hotel - Prague National Museum

In Casino Royale Bond is enjoying his retirement together with Vesper. They have bought a boat and presumably sailed from Montenegro to Venice where they have made their first stop. They have checked in to a hotel conveniently located in the very heart of Venice with their hotel suite overlooking the St. Mark's Square. Vesper who has arranged a meeting with Mr Gettler is leaving the hotel and Bond is following her down to the lobby. She tells Bond that she is going to the bank, but in reality she is going to hand Bond's poker winnings over to Gettler. As she leaves the hotel, she knows she is going to her death.

The hotel lobby scenes were filmed at the Czech National Museum in Prague. The entrance hall of the museum was transformed to a hotel lobby but because of the beautiful interior, not much was needed to be done in terms of production design. A front desk and a red carpet were put in, and the right feeling was created with a lot of extras making it look like a busy hotel.   

A wall and a fictional elevator was put in where there in fact is a hallway and Bond is escorting Vesper down to the hotel lobby from here. The entrance hall is just down to the left of the pillars. 

"-Mr Mendel, I'm having trouble accessing the funds in my account.

 -It was wired to the account number your company gave us Mr Bond. It appears the funds are withdrawn as we speak!"

                                      -Bond to Mr Mendel-

Bond is running down the stairs while talking to Mr Mendel

The main stairway hall can also be found in the museum, just after the lobby. I this scene a member of the "hotel staff" is walking past Bond with some dry cleaning. Even the stairway hall didn't need much of redecorating for the short scene.

Between the stairs on the ground floor you see the main entrance hall where the lobby was created.

The main stairway hall is beautiful and makes the museum well worth a visit when in Prague. However, the national museum is currently under construction and the entire building is closed until further notice. The access has been cut off not only to the main stairway but also to the entrance hall.

The first stairs Bond is running down can be found just above the main stairway hall. During Mr Stock's and my visit everything was still exactly like in the film. Hopefully, nothing will be changed during the extensive renovation.

Prague is one of the most beautiful capitols in Europe and the city's historic centre is a World Heritage site. The neoclassical Czech National Museum is one of many grandiose buildings that can be found throughout the city. It is located at one end of Wenceslas Square in the New Town (Nové Město) of Prague.

Miami international / Prague Ruzyne airport

American cars creating the image of the United State

In Casino Royale Bond follows Carlos, the terrorist from the Body Worlds exhibition, to Miami International airport. Like most of the action in Miami, the airport scenes were filmed in the Czech Republic. Prague International airport, Ruzyne, doubled for Miami airport.
The best thing about visiting locations from Royale is that next to nothing has changed since 2006. Airports are normally subject to changes and extensive renovations due to increasing traffic and it is therefore almost impossible to find an airport from the earlier films (e.g. Las Vegas, Istanbul) that is still recognizable.  But this is not the case at Ruzyne. Very little has changed since the shooting of the film and even the real traffic signs were used. 

The departure entrance were this scene was filmed is actually on the second floor of the airport, with another departure terminal below and a big ramp for the traffic. This becomes evident when you see the walking bridge in the pictures below. Bond is entering the airport from the third entrance. The interior scenes, apart from Bond's entry, were filmed at Nassau International Airport in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. 

The walking bridges connects the parking with the departure/arrivals hall. Carlos is coming up from the escalator, which is a factual error since both Carlos and Bond are entering from the same level. The rest of the action taking place at Miami airport (for instance Bond jumping on the petrol truck) was filmed on location at Ruzyne and the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey, England. The Skyfleet S-570 is actually a rebuilt Boeing 747 that was bought by a company specializing in supplying aircraft for television and film work and it can still be found at the Aerodrome today. The plane has also been visible in various episodes of Top Gear since parts of this program is filmed at Dunsfold Aerodrome. 

The interior of Ruzyne in 2010

Another thing that reveals the location to be set in Prague is the 'Travel Service' airplane. On the side of the plane you can read - Unimex Group. This is one of the largest private companies in the Czech Republic, involved in housing, tourism, hotel development and travel. Unimex Group is also mentioned at the end credits.

Body Worlds, Miami - Ministry of transport, Prague

In Casino Royale, Bond tails Alex Dimitrios from Nassau to Miami after kissing off Solange with a bottle of Bollinger Grande Année. Dimitrios is supposed to deliver a bag to a terrorist at The Body worlds exhibition in Miami.
All the Miami scenes were shot in the Czech Republic and the exterior of "Miami Body worlds" can be found in Prague. The building is really the Czech Republic Ministry of transport which was brilliantly converted to a Miami location, complete with palm trees and American cars in front. Unfortunately the building is not lit up in the evenings. The entire building feels like a relic from the cold war and a reminder of the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. It is amazing how they could make it look like an exhibition center from the sunshine state, and even though it only features for a few seconds it is worth a visit if you are in Prague and on your way to Danube house.

The Ministry of transport -- Ministerstvo Dopravy České Republiky -- can be found on Nábrezí Ludvíka Svobody 1222 Praha 1 - Nové Mësto just off the Vlatava river and only a 10 min walk from Dryden's office aka Danube house, that is seen in the pre-title sequence of Casino Royale.

The interior scenes were also shot in Prague but on a different location, namely the National Monument on Vitkov hill. This national monument was built between 1927 and 1932 in honor of the foundation of the former Czechoslovakia and of the Czechoslovak legionaries who served in WWI.

The exterior of the National monument

The building was used by the Nazis during WWII as an arsenal and after the war it became a Communist mausoleum. Three of the Communist presidents are buried here and it is also the tomb of the unknown soldier. Today the building houses a museum on Czech twentieth-century history, a communist monument to the fallen of WWII and on top, a café with magnificent view over Prague.

It is hard to recognize the interior but some details can be found in the film. Notice the pattern on the windows. The stairs below can also be seen in the background with people walking up and down in a few scenes. Even the stone floor can be recognized in the film and the metal garland seen next to Craig in the picture above can also be found on this location. Even though the location features for a very short time in the film and the interior is hard to recognize it is well worth a visit. It is a nice walk up to the monument and you almost have a 360 degree view over the city from the café.

The monument on Vitkov hill can be found on U Památníku 1900, Praha 3. Národní památník na Vítkove. Vitkov hill is conveniently located near both Danube house and the Ministry of transport.

Dryden´s office / Danube house - Prague, Czech Republic

Your file shows no kills...

Casino Royale was mainly set in Prague and Karlovy vary, two towns in the Czech Republic. Various locations in these two towns doubled for places in London, Montenegro and Miami. Dryden's office is the only building that is supposed to be located in the Czech Republic and was seen in the pre title sequence. Bond has to kill two people in order to receive his 00-status. Dryden, the section chief of Mi6 in Prague, is the second...

Where there's smoke coming out in the film, is actually a water fountain.

The scene was filmed at Danube house on Karolinská 650/1, the Karlín district in Prague 8, overlooking the Vltava river. Unless you're ready to drive over a small grass field, it is not possible to drive your car up to the entrance like Dryden did in the film. But the most fascinating thing about this location is not the exterior. It is the fact that the elevator scene and the interior shots also were filmed inside the actual building. This makes it a definitive must see for Bond fans scouting Prague. The main entrance hall has an information desk with staff and is open to the public but the elevator and the rest of the building is off limits unless you have access with a pass key. This is a problem you need to solve on your own. It is however possible to infiltrate when a big crowd is going in or out.

Third floor where Dryden is walking down.

The building itself has nine floors, and Dryden's office is located on the sixth floor. This is actually a mistake made in the film because Dryden is not walking down the corridor on the sixth but on the third floor. The view outside the window shows it. Another blooper is the fact that Dryden is walking towards the elevator rather than away from it. If you know the building you can see the elevator shaft to the right in front of Dryden.

 

Even the floor number seen in the elevator is filmed on location. You recognize the number 6 and the speaker next to it. Dryden is looking up at the number when going up to his office.

Another interesting fact can be found in the teaser trailer. A very short scene that was cut and didn't make it to the finished film shows Dryden walking through the entrance hall, also shot in the same building. Notice the information desk on the left and the canteen to the right of it. In the teaser you get a feeling that Dryden is walking outside, but it's actually set indoors.