No, Northanger Abbey is not a real place. It is a fictional location created by the author Jane Austen for her novel titled ‘Northanger Abbey.’
In the book, Northanger Abbey is depicted as a grand and somewhat mysterious Gothic mansion where much of the story’s events unfold. The setting serves as a backdrop for the protagonist, Catherine Morland, as she navigates her experiences of love, adventure, and social expectations in the early 19th century.
Austen’s choice to invent a location like Northanger Abbey reflects her satirical take on the popular Gothic novels of her time. The atmosphere and architecture of such abbeys were common tropes in Gothic literature, but Austen uses this fictional space to parody those themes while exploring deeper issues of imagination and reality.