‘The Vampire Diaries’: 1 Filming Location Was Owned by Evander Holyfield and Then Purchased by Rick Ross for $5.8 Million

The Vampire Diaries tells a love story involving supernatural beings and secret societies in the fictional Mystic Falls, Virginia. And the show’s settings also had a larger-than-life quality befitting the material. One of the better-known Vampire Diaries filming locations is a mansion once owned by boxing great Evander Holyfield. Rapper Rick Ross later bought the house. Now, the hip-hop heavyweight has big plans to transform the home and its surroundings to fit his tastes and ambitions. 

‘The Vampire Diaries’ filmed scenes at the home of a legendary boxer

Several members of the show’s cast spoke at Comic-Con Northern Ireland in September. Michael Trevino, Kayla Ewell, and Candice King took part in a Q&A, posted on the Monopoly Events YouTube channel, where a fan asked the actors to name their favorite Vampire Diaries filming location. 

Ewell and Trevino expressed affection for Covington, Georgia, the show’s primary filming location after the first season. The town east of Atlanta is equally appreciative of the show’s presence. Vampire Diaries superfans (aka “Vampire Stalkers”) put on Mystic Falls Tours where visitors can visit filming locations and get behind-the-scenes details about the production of the show and its spinoff The Originals. 

King’s most memorable Vampire Diaries filming location was Villa Vittoriosa, the 54,000-square-foot estate owned by Evander Holyfield. The mansion, situated in nearby Fayetteville, Georgia, appears in season 3 episode 18, “The Murder of One.” The cast also spoke about the experience during PaleyFest in 2012, and it clearly stuck with King. It was a home befitting a former heavyweight champion. “He just had a ballroom, not like a pool house, but an actual ballroom,” King said with awe. The home also featured a bowling alley. 

Hip-hop heavyweight Rick Ross now owns the house

Holyfield wasn’t the only star to live in the famous Vampire Diaries filming location. In 2014, Rick Ross purchased the property for $5.8 million. The music mogul had dreamed of buying the place for a long time. When he moved to Georgia in 2008, he purchased a home two blocks from the Holyfield house so he could ride by it daily.

“I looked at every curve and every up- and downhill on the lawn. I was looking at the geese as I rolled by. I did that for years until one day, I saw the red for-sale sign on the gate and made a U-turn,” Ross told Forbes. One man alone can’t perform upkeep on such an expansive property, but the artist maintains one part of the estate on his own: the lawn.

After hearing from locals that Holyfield had spent $1 million a year to mow the grass, Ross decided to do it himself and bought a John Deere tractor with all the accouterments. “I may have sat in the same spot for two hours before I got everything working, but once I got it going, I didn’t stop. I cut grass for about five hours,” he recalled. Rozay described the activity as giving him “a whole other level of peace.”

In 2019, he purchased an additional 87 acres near the estate for $1 million. Ross described it as “the Promised Land.” He isn’t sure what he’ll do with the area acreage yet, but the rapper imagines it as something significant. “I woke up one day thinking of building a gated community of homes. I’ve entertained the idea of creating a golf course. I thought of putting in an amphitheater. To have space to be creative, you need land.”

The former ‘Vampire Diaries’ filming location has attracted other productions

Rick Ross says visitors are “breathless and captivated” when they enter the home. And when you hear about this estate’s amenities, it’s easy to imagine why.

In addition to the bowling alley that The Vampire Diaries cast saw a decade ago, the mansion also features a 350,000-gallon indoor swimming pool, a basketball court, and a dining room seating 100. Oh, there’s also an in-home theater accommodating 135 people. Gasping upon entering a home this grand is the only reasonable response. 

The estate’s opulence makes the house an ideal filming location. It served as a prime setting for the 2018 remake of Superfly and as the Zamunda Palace in 2021’s Coming 2 America.