Walk through Christ Church College in Oxford, England, and you’ll have the feeling you’ve been there before. And you have. Unless you managed to miss the Harry Potter movies, you’ve seen parts of its campus and buildings, which served as sets—and inspiration for sets—in several of the films in the series.

You’ve also seen it if you’ve visited any number of academic institutions around the world. Harvard, Cornell, and the University of Chicago (to name just a few in the U.S.) all have dining rooms whose designs liberally reference that of the college’s Great Hall.

Oxford was a center for learning as early as the 12th century. Today, its namesake university is a centralized collective of 38 self-governing and financially independent colleges. Christ Church was established by Henry the VIII and became a college in 1546. Its spectacular Romanesque church once held the distinction of being England’s smallest cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren, an alumnus, designed its famous bell tower.

Despite all this familiarity, Christ Church College feels like a discovery. Five hundred years’ worth of students have filled its halls. How could a walk through the campus not be inspiring?