Evil Queen's Palace

"Your palace is as lovely as you are kind."

- The Genie to King Leopold

The Dark Palace is an Enchanted Forest location on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the second episode of the first season.

The Dark Palace is based on the Evil Queen's Palace from the fairytale "Snow White", and the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Inhabitants

 * Belle
 * Cora † (formerly)
 * Eva †
 * Evil Queen
 * Flying Monkeys † (formerly)
 * Henry †


 * King Leopold †
 * Prince Charming
 * Robin Hood †
 * Roland
 * Snow White
 * Zelena (formerly)

Visitors

 * Count of Monte Cristo †
 * Dead Eye
 * Genie of Agrabah
 * Gretel
 * Hansel
 * Hook
 * Isaac Heller (alternate reality)
 * Jefferson
 * Peasant


 * Rapunzel
 * Rapunzel's parents
 * Royal Aide
 * Royal Doctor
 * Rumplestiltskin
 * The Woodcutter
 * Tinker Bell
 * Victor Frankenstein

Trivia
|-|On-Screen Notes=

On-Screen Notes

 * The Dark Palace is featured in the title cards for "The Evil Queen" and "A Bitter Draught".
 * During King Leopold's reign, the table in the palace dining hall seated hundreds of people.
 * The design of Henry's new playground castle is similar to the dark palace.
 * Eva's bedchamber in the palace is the same one later used by Regina during her reign as queen.


 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * In "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", there is a shot of a river surrounded by trees, where the camera pans up from the river and focuses on the Dark Palace, before moving into the palace itself. Footage from this shot is recycled as establishing shots of the castle in several episodes:
 * The establishing shots for "Queen of Hearts", "Operation Mongoose Part 2" and "Labor of Love" are directly lifted from the episode, which is easily seen from the identical clouds and snow on the surrounding mountains.
 * "We Are Both" contains an altered, nighttime version of the shot, with different clouds and an added full moon; however, the snow covering the mountains is still the same.
 * "The Tower" contains another version. The castle is shown from a slightly different angle and the clouds have been removed; however, the snow is still identical (the snow on the mountain on the left side is easiest to compare).
 * An altered version of this shot, is used for the Wish Realm version of the palace in "Wish You Were Here". The foreground plate and the castle have been digitally altered to reflect the decrepit state of the castle, and CGI birds have been added to the shot.


 * -|Set Notes=

Prop Notes

 * The mirror that the Magic Mirror first appears in is the same mirror that Regina traps Sidney in, in "A Tale of Two Sisters". In "I'll Be Your Mirror", Regina finds the World Behind the Mirror version of the mirror in Sidney's former nest.
 * King Leopold's chess set from "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" appears in Mr. Gold's pawnshop during the Dark Curse. It is the object that he hurts his head on when he is attacked by Ashley.
 * The gazebo on the castle grounds from "Bleeding Through", was reused as the gazebo on Bo Peep's estate. The prop/set was redressed for this episode; most noticeably; King Leopold's coat of arms (a lion) was replaced with Bo Peep's crest: a sheep.
 * The same prop/set is used for the Arendelle Castle gazebo in "The Snow Queen". A new roof was added for this episode.
 * Snow White's council table in Isaac's alternate reality, is an alternate version of the Royal Castle council table from "Pilot", "The Shepherd" and "The Stranger". The new table, is painted in different colors, and Snow White and Prince Charming's crest has been replaced with Regina's crest.

Set Dressing

 * The royal family has two different coats of arms:
 * One shows a lion, and can be seen on a fireplace, castle banners and a gazebo.
 * This coat of arms is still in use during Regina's reign and can be seen on castle banners.
 * The other one shows several overlapping squares, with a torch billowing out flames at the top, and a crown. This motif can be seen on castle banners and the crown can be seen on a fireplace.
 * Regina adopts a darker colored version of this coat of arms after she becomes queen.
 * There is a sculpture of a dragon in Regina's chambers.
 * Two golden urns can be seen among Regina's wedding gifts. The same urns, but with a different color, are used to decorate Cora's heart vault in her home in "The Doctor". The urns also appear in Alphonse's Mansion in "In the Name of the Brother".
 * The golden version of the urns are reused later in the series: One of them can be seen aboard the Jolly Roger in "Snow Drifts", while the other one doubles as the urn Elsa comes out of in "There's No Place Like Home".

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.