Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant
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[edit] The Story
Every Disneyland park has a fairytale castle (Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland; Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort) at its centre which acts as a landmark for the park. The castle also combines the themes of Fantasyland: a fairy tale atmosphere, the traditional importance of Walt Disney's animated films and the role of water, landscaping and music. The castle also serves as the entrance to Fantasyland.
[edit] Imagineering
The development of the castle took a whole year whilst the imagineers choose between a grandiose or small charming castle, fictional or true-to-life. Another option would have been to reproduce the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in California or Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World in Florida. But these castles where inspired by castles in the Loire Valley and would be too familiar in France to be fairytale-like. They even considered a futuristic tower which would drastically change the concept but this idea was abandoned. [1]
The imagineers visited about 24 castles to get inspiration and to discover what not to reproduce. They picked ideas, but did not copy them. The first inspiration they got for the castle was to make it spiral towards the sky in the manner of Mont Saint Michel. They also liked the stained glass cupola from the Chateau at Chambord, the spiraled, tree-like columns from the Sain-Severin church in Paris and the patterned windows from the Chateau at Chaumont, the delicate towers at Azay-le-Rideau. The result is a fanciful castle with a recognisable French touch perched on top of a hill and surrounded by the 'square trees' from the Sleeping Beauty movie. It even has a dragon's lair down below: La Tanière du Dragon. They were also inspired by "Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry", a medieval book of illuminated manuscripts, where they got the many gold leafed towers from. [1]
For the stained glass, Paul Chapman, an English stained-glass specialist, came out of retirement (he was in his 80's) to supervise the creation of the stained glass windows for the castle. His motivation was that he had created serious and solemn designs for churches, he always wanted to create pieces that would make people smile and laugh. [1]
The coats-of-arms in the castle refer to the Imagineers who worked on the castle. The Latin inscriptions refer to the role they played in the project. Tony Baxter's coat-of-arms states "ruler of the entire realm" because he was in charge of the park design. Tom Morris's coat-of-arms says "ruler of the land" because he was the Fantasyland show producer. There is also a coats-of-arms for the Disney family featuring three lions which can be found on the left side of the castle, above the entrance to Fantasyland.
[edit] The Castle
The base of the castle consists of grey stones and is build on a slight hill. The castle has 16 thin towers, all covered with gold leaf at the tops and blue roof tiles. All of the towers are painted pink and have stained glass windows. The tallest of the castle towers weighs 15 tons and is 17 meter high. The highest point of the castle is 46 meters high but appears to be higher due to 'forced perspective'. [2] The stained glass window in the castle's main hall changes slowly from a rose and two doves. The rose represents the gift of beauty given to Princess Aurora by one of the three faires. The two doves represent the gift of song.
[edit] The Gallery
- Main article: La Galerie de la Belle au Bois Dormant
Inside the castle, stairs lead to a gallery with nine large Aubusson tapestries that tell the Sleeping Beauty story. When you walk past these tapestries you can hear the music from Tchaikowsky's ballets is woven through the scenes. At the end of the tour guests can look over Fantasyland from the balcony at the back of the castle.
[edit] Castles in other Disney parks
The castles in the other parks are more 'real' castles because in America they don't have real castles. Below you can find pictures of the castles in the various parks.
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| Disneyland Anaheim [3] | Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World [4] | Tokyo Disneyland [5] |
Unfortunately, http://commons.wikipedia.org does not have a picture of the castle in the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.
[edit] Trivia
- The towers were made in Italy and transported across France and attached to the castle on 2 August 1991.
- When the towers were installed the imagineers realized the colour was not exactly the one they wanted and the towers had to be repainted.
- Some of the roof tiles form small Mickey heads.
- As with all five Disney castles, this castle faces north to prevent backlighting for guests who wish to photograph the castle from the direction of Main Street, U.S.A.
[edit] References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Littaye, Alain. Disneyland Paris From sketch to reality. Collectors edition. Paris: Nouveau Millénaire éditions, 2002
- ↑ http://www.dlp.info/DLP/Lands/Fantasyland/Attractions/Chateau-de-la-Belle-au-Bois-Dormant.asp Retrieved 15:00, 10 September 2006.
- ↑ http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Disneylandcastle.jpg
- ↑ http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Magic_Kingdom_castle.jpg
- ↑ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:TDL_Cinderella_Castle_New_Color.jpg
[edit] Image Gallery
Below you find a few images from the castle. Images from the Gallery and La Tanière du Dragon are missing at the moment.
The sign above the entrance of the castle |
 The castle seen from Main Street, U.S.A. |
 The castle seen from the left on a sunny day |
 The backside from the castle seen from Fantasyland |
[edit] External Links
Virtual visits at Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant from http://www.disneylandparis.com:
