La casa de papel

15 of 15 places · 37 of 37 Moments

• The CSIC headquarters (the Royal Mint)

  Calle de Serrano 117, Madrid

  • Wednesday night on Antena 3

    La casa de papel begins on Antena 3 on 2 May 2017, at 10:40 on a Wednesday night. Its first run is 15 episodes, to 23 November.

  • Re-cut for the world

    Netflix buys the global streaming rights in late 2017, re-cuts the series into 22 shorter episodes and releases part 1 worldwide on 20 December.

  • The sock drawer

    Released with no promotion, it becomes Netflix’s most-watched non-English-language series within four months. The writer Javier Gómez Santander later compared the catalogue it went into to a sock drawer that only the algorithm could rescue it from.

  • The house of paper

    The Spanish title means, literally, “The House of Paper”. The theme song plays over a title sequence of paper models of the series’ main settings.

  • A façade like the Mint’s

    The CSIC headquarters, closed to traffic and with a very similar façade, becomes the Royal Mint of Spain.

  • The police in the garden

    The CSIC’s exteriors and gardens also serve as the police headquarters outside the Mint.

  • An International Emmy

    The series wins the International Emmy Award for best drama series.

• The School of Aeronautical Engineers

  Plaza del Cardenal Cisneros 3, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid

  • On the roof

    Mint exteriors are also shot on the roof of the School of Aeronautical Engineers.

• The real Royal Mint and its museum

  Calle del Doctor Esquerdo 36, Madrid

  • Too narrow, too busy

    The real Mint stands on the corner of narrow Calle Jorge Juan and busy Doctor Esquerdo, and is not open to the public.

  • From Colón to Doctor Esquerdo

    The mint’s collection, first shown in 1867 on Plaza de Colón, moves here with the Mint.

• Nuevos Ministerios (the Bank of Spain)

  Paseo de la Castellana 67, Madrid

  • A bank on the Castellana

    Nuevos Ministerios becomes the outside of the Bank of Spain for parts 3 to 5.

  • Zuazo’s ministries

    Secundino Zuazo’s government complex is finished after a Civil War pause.

  • Three times the size

    Filming for parts 3 and 4 moves to Netflix’s production hub in Tres Cantos, on a set three times the size of the first; filming of part 4 ends in August 2019.

  • The last episode

    Part 5 ends the series on 3 December 2021: five parts and 41 episodes in all. Filming finished on 14 May 2021.

• The real Bank of Spain

  Calle de Alcalá 48, at Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid

  • A bank for 1891

    The Bank of Spain’s headquarters, begun on 4 July 1884, opens at Cibeles.

  • Thirty-seven metres down

    The building holds 280 tonnes of Spain’s gold reserve 37 metres underground, guarded by three armoured doors and a flooding system.

  • Two reasons

    The real bank is not used: one account blames its security system, Madrid Tourism the need for somewhere quieter and closed to traffic. Its interior is built on a set.

  • The vault under water

    The underwater scenes inside the vault are filmed at Pinewood Studios in England.

• Plaza del Callao

  Plaza del Callao, on the Gran Vía, Madrid

  • Paper from the sky

    The scene of money falling from the sky is filmed on Plaza del Callao; in the story it is the gang’s way of causing chaos to get into the bank.

  • Callao opens

    Plaza del Callao, laid out in 1861, is formally opened, named after the battle of Callao that May.

• Finca El Gasco (the house in “Toledo”)

  Calle Tijuana, Torrelodones, Madrid

  • The house in “Toledo”

    The robbers live and train at a hunting estate the story puts near Toledo; it is filmed at Finca El Gasco in Torrelodones.

  • An old Italian song

    At the end of part 1 the Professor and Berlin sing “Bella ciao”, the Italian anti-fascist song, before the heist; it returns in part 2 as a sign of freedom. The writer Javier Gómez Santander brought it to the show.

  • A summer hit

    Largely because of the series, “Bella ciao” becomes a summer hit across Europe.

  • Cities for names

    The robbers take cities as code names; the newspaper ABC compared them with the colour names in Reservoir Dogs.

• The stages at Colmenar Viejo

  Colmenar Viejo, Madrid

  • Locked Up’s old stages

    The Mint’s interiors are built on the former sets of Locked Up in Colmenar Viejo, and the printing presses are filmed at ABC’s works in Torrejón de Ardoz.

  • Red, not yellow

    The robbers’ red jumpsuits echo the yellow prison clothes of Locked Up; for part 3, Diesel refits them.

  • Every set comes down

    Planned as a limited series, the show destroys all its sets once part 2 is finished.

• Ermita de San Frutos (the Italian monastery)

  Hoces del Río Duratón, Carrascal del Río, Segovia

  • Tuscany in Segovia

    The Ermita de San Frutos above the Duratón gorge plays the Italian monastery where the robbers plan the Bank of Spain heist.

  • The saint’s day

    Every 25 October a romería carries San Frutos in procession at the hermitage, with pipes, drum and dancers.

• Las Salinas, Cabo de Gata

  Playa de las Salinas, Cabo de Gata, Almería

  • The motorhome on the beach

    The Professor and Lisbon’s motorhome scenes are filmed on the empty Las Salinas beaches in Almería.

• Guna Yala, Panama

  Guna Yala comarca, Caribbean coast of Panama

  • Three years on

    Part 3 opens three years after the Mint, with the robbers living paired up far from Spain: it is filmed in Thailand, on the Guna Yala islands and in Florence.

  • Permission from the Congress

    The executive of the Guna General Congress approves filming in Guna Yala after a meeting with the production.

• Piazza del Duomo, Florence

  Piazza del Duomo, Florence

  • Berlin returns in Florence

    Flashbacks to the plan’s beginnings, with Berlin back, are shot around the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and Piazzale Michelangelo.

• Piazzale Michelangelo, Florence

  Piazzale Michelangelo, Oltrarno, Florence

  • Watched from the terrace

    Hundreds of locals watch the Professor meet Berlin as filming moves between Piazza del Duomo and Piazzale Michelangelo.

• Nyhavn, Copenhagen

  Nyhavn, Copenhagen

  • A few days in Denmark

    The final part is shot for a few days at Nyhavn and Frederiksborg Castle, in scenes with Berlin.

  • A new harbour

    Nyhavn is dug for King Christian V.

• Frederiksborg Castle

  Frederiksborg Slot 10, Hillerød, Denmark

  • Christian IV’s castle

    Christian IV builds the Renaissance Frederiksborg on the site of his father’s castle.