Marlinspike Hall

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Tintin, Captain Haddock and Snowy approach Marlinspike Hall.

The Château de Cheverny was used as a model for Marlinspike Hall. The two outermost wings are not present, but the remaining central tower and two wings are almost identical.

Marlinspike Hall (Le château de Moulinsart in the original French-Belgian) is Captain Haddock's Country house in Hergé's comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.

The hall is modeled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny. The French name is derived from Sart-Moulin, a village near Braine-l'Alleud in Walloon Brabant, Belgium; in an allusion to the Haddock family's maritime history, the hall's English name refers to the Marlinspike, a tool used in seamanship to splice ropes.

Marlinspike Hall first appears in The Secret of the Unicorn as the home of the story's villains, the Bird brothers. At the end of Red Rackham's Treasure, the manor is purchased by Professor Calculus on behalf of the Captain; the fabled treasure itself is found hidden in the manor's cellar. Marlinspike provides a home base for Tintin and Haddock in between their various adventures. In The Castafiore Emerald, virtually all of the action takes place in the hall, its grounds, or the surrounding countryside.

Marlinspike Hall is presented as a large and luxurious dwelling adorned with numerous works of art, antique furniture, and a gallery of the Haddock family's treasures. The grounds comprise a park with extensive woodlands, wide lawns, a rose garden, a high surrounding wall, at least two gates, a neighbouring meadow, and at least one adjacent building (used by Professor Calculus as a laboratory in The Calculus Affair ).

[edit] Translations

• (Brazilian) Portuguese: Castelo de Moulinsart
• Danish: Møllenborg Slot (Litterally: Millburg Castle)
• Dutch: Kasteel Molensloot
• French: Château de Moulinsart
• German: Schloss Mühlenhof
• Icelandic: Myllusetur
• Spanish: Castillo de Moulinsart