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Marlinspike: More models for the Captain's château and the village?

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jock123
Moderator
#11 · Posted: 25 Oct 2010 23:05
Mikael Uhlin:
I'm pretty sure there's some real church somewhere in Belgium with a tower like that.

We are thinking alike here - and probably both spending too much time on it! My thought, allowing for this not being a widespread local look for spires in the region, is that it is possibly this one, on La Chapelle Saint-Martin, which is similar.

The photo is quite low contrast, but this sketch on the cover of a book about the chapel shows the beveled edges going up to the point which are clearly a feature of the one in the magazine.

It’s in the wrong place for my identification of the location, and it doesn’t have the paired openings in the belfry, but it is a landmark building, and it’s just south of Braine-l’Alleud in Lillois-Witterzée.

Update: Although the chamfer on the steeple of Sacré-Cœur à Braine-l'Alleud (also known locally as l’Ermite (the Hermitage)) isn’t as pronounced, it shares the general shape of the one on St. Martin’s, and has the double belfry openings as seen in the magazine, and the similar church tower spied in the region of the station at the start of Seven Crystal Balls. Perhaps it is a form traditional to the area, and would be found in other churches there too.

I also found this great site, showing a rather lovely country walk starting at Sacré-Cœur, and which conveniently follows a route around the region in which Marlinspike Hall and the village seem to be set, and which shows that (in essence at least) it is still possible to walk through countryside such as Hergé drew, without having to resort to traversing the sewage works and industrial estates of Wallonia.
Tim und Struppi
Member
#12 · Posted: 26 Oct 2010 18:31
A minor contribution: There's even a "rue de Sart Moulin" leading to the place where the station could be.
jock123
Moderator
#13 · Posted: 26 Oct 2010 20:39
Tim und Struppi:
There's even a "rue de Sart Moulin" leading to the place where the station could be.
Maybe it's twinned with Zonneblœmlaan, just over the regional border in Beersel, and obviously named for the local professor?
It means "Sunflower Street" in Flemish, and Zonnebloem is also the translation of Professor Calculus's original name, Tournesol.
Mikael Uhlin
Member
#14 · Posted: 27 Oct 2010 17:11
Fascinating! Suddenly a lot things in the world of Tintin appear to take place in the vicinity of Braine-l'Alleud!
jock123
Moderator
#15 · Posted: 24 Jan 2011 19:48
Mikael Uhlin:
Suddenly a lot things in the world of Tintin appear to take place in the vicinity of Braine-l'Alleud!

And possibly more than we know: according to Tintin.com Editions Moulinsart has just published a Tintin-focused guide-book to the Braine-l’Alleud countryside.

Written by Dominique Maricq, Hergé côté jardin: un dessinateur à la campagne looks at the countryside in the books, and compares it to the real Walloon Brabant countryside around Sart-Moulin and the places Hergé lived and knew.

Sounds like it could be a valuable source of info!

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