Three Tower Castle

Three Tower Castle

This reproduction of a mediaeval castle it is shown for the first time as a creepy remains in the story *PAPERINIK E IL CASTELLO DELLE TRE TORRI* (DUCK AVENGER AND THE THREE TOWER CASTLE). This castle is located near an old railway in a hill area up to the north border of the Duckburg county. This creepy castle belong to a guy named Spokius Spektrus who was a misterious inventor lived during the second half of the 1800. It seems that this strange character likes to frighten his guests and the peoples living in the surrounding area. To do this the inventor used strange machinery and hipnotic illusions as well as fake apparison of ghosts.

According to the testament of Spokius Spektrus past hundred years after his death, the Castle of the Three Towers will be owned by anyone who has the courage to spend a night inside. Scrooge after trying in vain to convince Donald to spend the night inside the castle, he hires Gladstone so that after taking possession of the castle he will donate it as free gifts to the rich uncle who intends to turn it into a hotel for billionaires

But during the night DUCK AVENGER that intervenes to avenge the insult suffered, disguises himself as a ghost making fun of Gladstone then showing the crowd gathered for the event he declared himself heir of Spokius Spektrus and takes possession of the Castle of the Three Towers.

As we are shown by the subsequent history PAPERINIK E IL CASTELLO DEI SEGRETI (DUCK AVENGER AND THE CASTLE OF SECRETS) time after the Castle of the Three Towers was restored by the municipality as a gift on behalf of the citizens of Duckburg. Later on DUCK AVENGER create inside this castle his secondary refuge cleverly hidden behind a secret passage.

Entering the main door, equipped with a drawbridge, there is a large living room. From this via a wide staircase leads to the upstairs rooms. In a living room wall there is the entrance to the secret secondary refuge of DUCK AVENGER which can be opened by means of a mechanism that is actuated by pulling a large halberd.

Behind the secret passage there is the secondary refuge of DUCK AVENGER, also this one very likely made by Gyro Gearloose after the Castle of the Three Towers was restored from the town of Duckburg. In this refuge DUCK AVENGER holds a back-up costume, some gadgets and various masks.

Still in the story DUCK AVENGER AND THE CASTLE OF SECRETS one of the bedrooms for the castle's guests is shown. In this room, and in others, Spokius Spektrus has installed special hypnotic mirrors that can be operated remotely with which to hypnotize guests as a joke, inducing suggestions of various kinds in them, including that of believing themselves to be finches.

An interesting map found by Duck Avenger in the castle archives shows us one of the many secret passages, in this case located in the as called the ghost tower. The secret passage that can be activated by pressing one of the stones of the tower leads via stairs to an underground passage.

Along the tunnel there is a trunk containing numerous hypnotic mirrors equipped with a special remote-controlled device with which Spokius Spektrus enjoyed hypnotizing his guests.

In the story i>DUCK AVENGER AND THE CASTLE OF SECRETS in some & quot;flash back" of the second half of the 1800, the true appearance of Spokius Spektrus it is shown, along with a guest who had just played one of his creepy pranks.

In one of the corridors near the rooms on the upper floor there is the secret passage to the laboratory of Spokius Spektrus. The access to this passage is operated by turning the helmet of an armor. In the laboratory of the extravagant inventor there are mysterious and incredible machinery that is decidedly avant-garde for a character who lived in the 1800.

An interesting representation of the Castle of the Three Towers is made by the talented Disney architect/artist Blasco Pisapia in one of his special articles entitled: The guide to the city of Duckburg, published in the italian comic book TOPOLINO in September 2014.

The Three Tower castle is shows how it was during the 20s by Gervasio in the fourteenth episode of the Fantomallard saga titled THE TRASURE OF FRANCIS DRAKE. In this adventure is told that the castle was originally buit by the Mad Duke. On one of his portrait in fact the Duke is represented in front of the Three Tower Castle instead of his usual manor.
It is thu is logical to suppose that the castle was sold in a later period to Spokius Spektrus (or to some of his ancestors) by some heir of the Mad Duke.

In the same story Gervasio also shows that during the 20s Cartesius Gearloose, twin of Copernicus, has his secret laboratory in the underground of the castle. We can thus presume that Cartesius was a friend or a student or an assistant of Spokius Spektrus who also was a extravagant genius and inventor.

The Castle of the Three Towers is shown again during the 1920s by Gervasio in the sixteenth episode of the Fantomallard saga entitled THE THIEF AND THE BILLIONAIRE. In this story Fantomallard and his friend Copernicus Gearloose go to the manor to oppose Cartesius Gearloose (twin brother of Copernicus) who had just stolen from Scrooge the famous striped ruby -symbol of distinction-

In the same story, Gervasio also shows us the main hall of the castle with the portrait of Spokius Spectrus the last owner of the castle still on the wall at the top of the stairs during the second half of 1800.
Also in this story are shown the secret access to the laboratory which is activated by opening the armor concealment positioned in the wall under the staircase of the hall.

Gervasio then shows us a part of the old laboratory of Spokius Spektrus where the maniacal Cartesius Gearloose (who was at the time a pupil of Spokius) kept until the 1920s his secret refuge.

In the sequence of the escape of Cartesius Gearloose from the Castle of the Three Towers, Gervasio reproduces a beautiful glimpse of the position of the manor with respect to the city of Duckburg, in the hilly area north of Duckburg.

In some vignettes connecting the stories of the Fantomallard saga which have been reprinted in the special Classic THE MYSTERIES OF FANTOMALLARD it is shows again Spokius Spektrus towards the end from 1800 when he wrote his will concerning the castle of the three towers.

In the history of Bertani, Gervasio and Baccinelli DUCK AVENGER AND THE GOLDEN TOWER publised on italian comic books TOPOLINO n.3479-3481 the lawyer Raymond Bum who had managed the will of Spokius Spektrus announces the existence of another letter where the owner of the castle informs the one who will inherit the castle of the presence of a mysterious treasure in one of the towers (probably the gold that the Mad Duke stole from Francis Drake), a treasure that the Spokius Spectrus himself does not was able to find.

The story is set in the period in which Duck Avenger with the help of Gyro Gearloose is forced to create the alternative refuge in one of the secret rooms of the castle, being the refuge under the Donald's house uninhabitable due to sudden flooding. In the story we are again shown different areas of the castle, the dungeons and the various mechanisms to access the secret rooms.

In one of the secret rooms of the basement Duck Avenger and Gyro discover a sort of robot-armor built at the time by Cartesius Gearloose when he used in the first decades from 1900 the castle of the three towers as his laboratory after being a pupil of Spokius Spektrus .

Another beautiful image of the main hall of the castle of the three towers is shown in the second part of the story DUCK AVENGER AND THE GOLDEN TOWER.

In the same adventure Scrooge, Rockerduck and Duckan each decide to demolish one of the castle's towers hoping to find the gold hidden by the Mad Duke.
The three towers are named the tower of the ghost, the great tower and the tower without battlements.

Still in the story DUCKS AVENGER AND THE GOLDEN TOWER the towers of the castle are demolished by Scrooge, Rockerduck and Duckan to search for the alleged treasure that the Mad Duke Richard Quackett hid in one of the towers after stealing it from Francis Drake.

Not having found the treasure, the three tycoons give up their possession of the castle, but the Duckburg mayor, before returning the castle "property" to Duck Avenger, forces them to completely restore the old castle.
Fortunately, during the restorations, no one discovers the basement of the castle and the secret refuge of the masked avenger duck is therefore safe.

While inspecting the castle Duck Avenger and Gyro discover from an old painting that the castle originally had four towers and that therefore presumably the treasure was hidden in the fourth tower which was presumably demolished by the the same Mad Duke, thus transferring the gold to another safer place.

Reading better one of the diaries of Fantomallard the two friends discover that the gentleman thief had already sought his ancestor's gold but that he found only a gilded canvas. It seems that Richard Quackett used that gold to help the first settlers in the area build the Cape Quack lighthouse.

From the demolished tower the gold was then used to build the Capo Quack lighthouse which in fact is located not far from the castle of the three towers.

The three towers castle is also mentioned in the CENTAURIA booklet 89 in the I LOVE PAPEROPOLI series.

The castle of the three towers appears again in the story of Gervasio and Baccinelli DUCK AVENGER IN TRAPPED AT THE CASTLE where the masked duck finds himself facing Wilson Risk which was already his opponent in a previous story.

In this adventure the talented artist Baccinelli shows us some glimpses of the castle including the high main tower known as "the ghost tower"

On the occasion of this adventure, PANINI publishing created a beautiful model of the castle of the three towers complete with internal rooms, underground rooms, secret passages and the Duck Avenger characters with his special car, Donal Duck , Gyro Gearloose, Scrooge Mc Duck, Rockerduck and the "ghosts" on the main tower.

The model includes various details and parts of both the internal halls and the secret hideout including the ancient style bed, the armour, the pendulum clock, tapestries, the halberd which hides a secret passage, the secret door which leads to the hideout, chests, shackles and chains.

Among the notable paintings are the portrait of Spokis Spektrus and that of the Mad Duke of Duckburg who created the castle in the 16th century.