the castle
Durmstrang Institute, while not as old and prestigious as Hogwarts, has been around for many generations. Founded by wizards and witches wanting to instill their vast magical knowledge in the minds of younger generations, it has been going strong since. Durmstrang started out a small school, meant for only the gifted and those pure of blood, but has since began to branch out. The largest change in the history of the school came in the 1950’s when half-bloods were allowed entrance into the school, to help supplement the dwindling pure-blood population. Then came Headmaster Ivanov, and the expansion of the school. Under his rule, the school has expanded to include enough space to house triple the current student population with ease, and even quadruple comfortably.
The first floor holds the main foyer/entrance area. There is the Dining Hall where students and staff eat. It also houses the kitchens, the Grand Ballroom for socials, the Infirmary, the indoor practice areas for fencing and the outdoor practice area for Archery. You can also find the offices for the Headmaster, Deputy Headmaster and Caretaker on the first floor.
For the second floor up to the fifth floor you will find the classrooms and club rooms. The offices for each individual teacher will be located directly off their classroom, and one must enter the classroom in order to access the office. Each teacher is responsible for listing their office hours. On the sixth floor is a great, circular room with a glass dome. This is the classroom and club room for Astronomy, and also includes the office for the Astronomy teacher. Unlike the other floors, the sixth floor has a large balcony space that wraps around the entirety of the dome with telescopes stationed along the half wall protection the unsuspecting student from a great fall.
There are six towers circling the main section of the castle, five of which are the towers for the individual Houses. The sixth tower houses the Headmaster on the topmost floor, the Deputy Headmaster on the second floor, and the Caretaker on the bottom floor. The staff (other than the Headmaster, Deputy and Caretaker) are housed bellow the school, in what would have been the dungeons if Durmstrang had ever been a functioning castle instead of a school. Each room hosts windows looking out into the outer landscape it is directed at, whether it is an outer room or an interior room. The outer rooms can open up into the actual landscape, the inner rooms, however, are magical and will show the scene, and even give the same breeze upon opening; you just cannot extend any body parts out of the window.
Staff with families are required to be and stay at the school throughout the week, and must spend one weekend a month at the school, but otherwise may return to their homes on the weekend and holidays. Single and non-family staff are required to stay over holidays during the school year unless they acquire special permission. It is also not encouraged for staff to enter into relationships with each other, but it does happen. It is to be kept in mind, however, that no children are allowed to be kept in the school and raised within the school. Only children between the aged of eleven and eighteen are allowed within the school at any time.
The owlery is located off of the main school at the edge of a jutting cliff, and is half the size of the Towers. One must go through the bottom floor of the Owlery to reach the elevator that scales down the cliff to the Staff rooms, which is the main entrance for staff to the rooms allocated to them. Students are only allowed to enter the elevator if accompanied by a staff member, in order to discourage curious and naughty students.
Dorm Room Floor Plan
There are two people per room in each tower. There are eight floors per tower. The first floor is a main communal room for all years. The topmost floor is for first years, ranging down through the years with the second floor belonging to seventh years. Each floor has a smaller communal room for that year alone as well, though people from other years may enter it as well. Each tower is split in half, with one half for females, one half for males. A member of the opposite sex cannot enter into the hallway for either sex. Meaning a female cannot try going into the male hallway, and the males cannot try going into the female hallway. There is one stairwell per tower, leading up to the top, with a doorway at each floor that leads to that floors common space. From there one can enter into the hallways for either sex. The stairwell is spiral and does up through the middle of the tower, and each common room is circular and wraps around the outer wall of the stairwell. While the tower is a circle in nature, the inside is magically alters and inside gives a more rectangular feel as each hallway entrance is located directly across from the other, and extends out in order for the proper number of rooms to be offered. There is an appropriate number of rooms to house the number of students for each year, no more and no less. Should there be an odd number of students, one room will adjust to house three instead of just two.
Dimitri Bzowski
Aleksandr Lebziak
Mihály Báthory
Alexandra Starkova