The villa featured in ‘The Crown’ is located in Mallorca, Spain, and can be rented for €60,000
The mansion, where the Princess of Wales once vacationed in real life, recreates the Al-Fayed family property in Saint-Tropez in the show’s final season
Wearing a short red dress, Diana of Wales climbs the stone steps of a staircase that runs from a small private jetty to the entrance of a majestic villa with a yellow facade. Accompanied by her sons, William and Harry, the princess greets Mohamed Al-Fayed, who opens his arms to her as her children splash in a pool built on the edge of a cliff with the immense blue Mediterranean stretching into the horizon. The Al-Fayed family’s summer home in Saint-Tropez figures prominently in the first episodes of the sixth and final season of the hit show The Crown, which fictionalizes the life of Queen Elizabeth II. The splendorous villa, christened The Yellow Castle, is not actually in France, but rather in Mallorca, Spain, where Princess Diana of Wales had spent some summer days during her youth, before she married then-Prince Charles.
The show’s filming took place in September 2022. Now, the complex can be rented for €59,500 ($65,197) per week during the high season. That is certainly not in everyone’s budget, but guests who can afford it can enjoy exclusive sunset views from the small private peninsula of Sa Mola, where the villa is built; walk through a grotto; dock a boat at the villa’s own pier; or enjoy a swimming pool and extensive gardens while having breakfast dishes prepared by the service staff. The property spans over a thousand meters (over 3,200 feet) with two houses of three rooms each, complete with a gym, sauna and even a billiard room. The property pays tribute to Lady Di with a suite in her name, which has been there since the princess spent some summer days of her youth at the villa; the former owners were a married couple who were friendly with the Spencer family. “The house was owned by a British couple and the families were acquaintances. Diana of Wales came for a vacation before she became a princess, which is why one of the rooms has a plaque with her name on it, to remember that she stayed there,” explains Fabio Palumbo, the owner of Unisono Luxury Homes, the real estate company that markets the property.
The British owners later sold it to a German businessman, and the mansion became the subject of controversy for a while. Its new owner, German businessman Carsten Maschmeyer, invited German President Christian Wulff to spend a few days with his family at the estate. That was in July 2010, only a few weeks after he was sworn in as president. The controversy over Wulff and his family’s vacation at the Mallorcan villa made the front pages of newspapers because of the inappropriateness of the relationship between the president and the businessman. Two years later, Wulff announced his resignation after being implicated in a case of influence peddling; he was ultimately acquitted of the charge. In 2014, four years after the scandal, the house was put up for sale for €38 million ($41.6 million), becoming one of the most expensive properties on the island. The current owners are from Asia and spend just a few weeks a year visiting the island, so for the rest of the time they rent out the villa to make a profit.
The Crown team was interested in the house because of its location and outside appearance, as the goal was to emulate the villa where Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed spent their last vacation in Saint-Tropez. During the first three episodes of the sixth season, the house is the setting for the budding romance between the princess and the heir to Harrod’s department store before the fatal car crash that killed them in Paris.
“The production company had seen the house several times. It was perfect for them because it is a classic property and [the show] had to be set in the 1990s. Of course, all the furniture was changed, because although it is decorated in a traditional style, it is quite new,” says Palumbo.
The production company also rented a huge yacht to recreate the images of Diana and Dodi at sea; in several scenes on the show, they are harassed by paparazzi who try to take their photos from other boats. The yacht was also used to film the famous image of Diana sitting pensively in a blue swimsuit on the edge of the boat’s diving board, a photo that appeared in the magazines of the day. During the three weeks of filming on the island, Mallorca’s streets were transformed to become Monte Carlo and Saint-Tropez in the sixth and final season of The Crown.
In addition to serving as a film set, the Yellow Castle is a hit among American clients, a market that has grown significantly in Mallorca in the past three years as direct air connections from New York have become available. The property is also popular among Europeans from Germany, Monaco, Austria and Belgium, most of whom are millionaire businessmen seeking a quiet vacation spot. The mansion appeals to athletes as well; Novak Djokovic enjoyed the villa during his stay on the island when he was there to participate in a tennis tournament. Palumbo predicts a success in this season’s bookings: “There is a lot of Netflix tourism, people who want to stay in a special or different place. That’s even more true with this house, after it was [featured] in such a successful show.”
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