6 Fictional Universes You Won't Believe Exist On Earth

6 Rivendell From Lord Of The Rings

In J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings novels, Rivendell is the home of the elves, located inside a grand valley where evil dare not venture. We're not sure if evil dare not venture into Switzerland (though Hitler was compellingly reluctant), but that's where Rivendell is:

When he was 19, Tolkien visited the spectacular valley of Lauterbrunnen. Decades later, when he wrote The Hobbit, he described Rivendell, and illustrated it as well. And although he never explicitly identified the Lauterbrunnen Valley as the inspiration for Rivendell, well ... it ain't like this kind of majesty can be found in inner Philly.

It was fans and scholars of Tolkien who fingered Lauterbrunnen as the real Rivendell in the '90s, based not only on the descriptions and images that Tolkien provided, but also other clues in the text itself. Notably, in the books, the English name for the river that flows through the valley is "Loudwater," and the Elvish name is "Bruinen."

Loudwater. Bruinen. Lauterbrunnen. Somewhere, the ghost of Tolkien is coyly inserting a pinky into the corner of his mouth and barely suppressing an amused chortle.

5 The Planet Naboo From Star Wars

You might be surprised to learn that less than 100 percent of the Star Wars prequels were CGI. In fact, some of the most striking locations on Naboo are real places that were hardly touched up at all.

Scenes in Theed Palace, where the Queen lives, were filmed in the Palace of Caserta, Italy (shown above) and Plaza de Espana, Spain.

And while some of the exterior shots were heavily retouched...

They're still based on real places. For example, the lake retreat where Anakin and Padme undertake the least convincing romance in the history of the galaxy is another real location in Italy -- the Villa del Balbianello, Naboo-ified with some CGI domes:

The official Star Wars blog offers travel information for these and other Naboo locations, including the meadow where Anakin and Padme have a picnic. Of course, only the most diehard fans are likely to embark on a tour to relive the absolute weakest side plot out of all six films, but the option is there.

4 The Kingdom In Tangled

Disney's Tangled is set in the fictional kingdom of Corona, a city situated on an island, accessible from the mainland only by a single bridge. But the animators at Disney have admitted that they ripped the design of Corona from Mont St. Michel in northern France:

The medieval monastery started out as a small church, but the owners kept making additions until they wound up building an 8th-century Death Star, complete with walls to protect it from invading Huns or Gauls or Lannisters or whatever they had to worry about back then.

Animator Glen Keane said that he knew the instant he visited the island that it was going to be adapted into a Disney-style fantasy kingdom. Look at the place. You know it's positively lousy with snarky mice and big-chinned villains.

3 Hogwarts From Harry Potter

Several sites across the British Isles were used to create Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the Harry Potter films, but Oxford University has the most. For example, that iconic Great Hall where most of the exposition happens is Oxford's Christ Church Hall. Just take down all the paintings and add some magical floating candles to set that inappropriately romantic mood ...

Oxford's Bodleian Library stood in for the Hogwarts library (and that awkward dance practice studio in Goblet Of Fire.)

If that last photograph of the Bodleian's Divinity School looks familiar, it should. It was also used for the infirmary where Hermione's Time-Turner rendered the whole goddamn plot a complete waste of time.

2 The Spirit World From Spirited Away

Spirited Away takes place in another dimension, so that (and the fact that it's a cartoon) means you can't literally visit the setting. But you can come close. The spirit world that the heroine wanders around in was based on the town of Jiufen in Taiwan. Director Hayao Miyazaki visited the town and was inspired by how bonkers it looks at night:

The gigantic bathhouse where most of the story takes place is based on the Jiufen teahouse.

And here's the marketplace that inspired the one from the film:

Visitors to Jiufen should find the setting almost unwelcomely familiar, even down to the freaky disembodied heads:

1 Arendelle From Frozen

Frozen's kingdom of Arendelle is essentially the real Norwegian city of Bergen.

Most of the city scenes in Frozen take place at Bergen's Bryggen Wharf (Bergen Bryggen? Really? Not doing much to dispel those goofy-accented stereotypes, Norway), a world heritage site that you can see here, not trapped in an endless magical winter:

But Bergen lacks those towering mountains that made Arendelle so striking. Don't worry, though: For only a few thousand dollars, Adventures by Disney will haul your ass over to Geirangerfjord and Naeroyfjord to see the real things. Because how could you possibly make up something as outlandish as ... a mountain?

Yeah, "Imagineers" our ass.

Visit CR McNeil's website, where you can watch new fictional settings come to life and guess which ones will appear in Real Fictional Places (Part 18). Please follow Jacopo on Twitter and read his novels The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy and License to Quill!

It turns out a lot of things we think are fantastical probably exist in some form or another in the real world. Like Cthulhu totally exists -- albeit much smaller and way cuter. See what we're talking about in 24 Terrifying Real-World Monsters You Won't Believe Exist. Or see some of the people in Hollywood who still care enough to bring our dreams to life in 6 Mind-Blowing Special Effects You Won't Believe Aren't CGI.

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