Fanspot
Moulinsart Castle
– Hello? … Hello, Moulinsart? … Hello, is that you Nestor? … Hello? … How? Who is this?
– The Sanzot butcher shop, here… What is it for? …
Captain Haddock and the owner of the Sanzot butcher shop
Owner of the vast residence since the album The Secret of the Unicorn, Captain Haddock also lodges his two friends, Tintin and Professor Tournesol. The latter has a workshop for his scientific experiments in the immense park of the castle.
Before that, the place belonged to the Loiseau brothers, the dangerous antique dealers who sent Tintin to their castle.
To put Moulinsart in pictures, Hergé was inspired by the castle of Cheverny, located in the department of Loir-et-Cher in France. If he removed the two imposing side pavilions, the Belgian author kept its general aspect. Better yet, he also used the large central interior staircase for his boards. Monumental staircase whose broken step plays a central role in the album The Castafiore Emerald. Poor Nestor, the butler, does not hesitate to do acrobatics to avoid dropping his tray.
Without ever having set foot there before drawing the pages of The Secret of the Unicorn, Hergé relied on tourist brochures. Yet, it is tricky to get the domain itself right. Some pieces are the same from one album to another but sometimes some vary. Hergé never made a plan of the castle.
As for the name Moulinsart, it is said to come from the inversion of the name of the hamlet of Sart-Moulin in the commune of Braine-l’Alleud, not far from Brussels.
Since 2001, the Château de Cheverny has housed a permanent exhibition, Les Secrets de Moulinsart, where visitors can immerse themselves in the settings of Moulinsart.
The park of the Château de Cheverny covers an area of 100 hectares.
Château de Cheverny
Second most visited castle after Chambord, Cheverny completed its construction in 1634.
Located in Sologne in the commune of Cheverny, the castle of classical style was built on the plans of the architect Jacques Bougier.
Classified as a historical monument since 1840, it is made of Bourré stone, a local tufa stone. Its interiors are priceless, notably its dining room decorated with 34 painted wooden panels representing the story of Don Quixote, but also its imposing grand staircase with a right rise, or its vestibule, its large living room or its king’s room. The latter was used, like many rooms, by Hergé to imagine the castle of Moulinsart.
The architectural ensemble was also used as the basis for the Volban family castle in the animated series Glass Fleet.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
In this classic graphic novel: Tintin stumbles across a model ship at the Old Street Market. Only it isn’t just any model ship-it’s the Unicorn, carved by one of Haddock’s ancestors, and it holds a clue to finding pirate treasure!
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