Marlinspike Hall

Marlinspike Hall (French: Le château de Moulinsart or Moulinsart [mu.lɛ̃.saʁ]) is Captain Haddock's country house and family estate in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé.

The hall is modelled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny, a manor in France. Hergé purposely left out the wings at the extremity of the original building, saying that it would be one thing for Captain Haddock to inherit a beautiful residence, but quite another thing for him to inherit a stately home.

The original French name of the hall (Le château de Moulinsart) 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. By the end of the sequel Red Rackham's Treasure, the manor is found to have been built by Haddock's illustrious ancestor Sir Francis Haddock. It is purchased by Professor Calculus on behalf of the Captain, and the fabled treasure itself is found hidden in the manor's old chapel, in the cellars. In the following years, 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.

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