Camelot Castle

"King Arthur: Now then... If you'll all follow me. Emma Swan: Where? King Arthur: Why Camelot, of course."

- King Arthur and Emma Swan

Camelot Castle, originally a single tower known as Merlin's Tower, is a Camelot location on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the first episode of the fifth season.

Trivia

 * -|On-Screen Notes=

On-Screen Notes

 * Merlin's Tower appears in the title card for "The Broken Kingdom".
 * The Camelot Castle bears a striking resemblance to Neuschwanstein Castle, which inspired the Sleeping Beauty Castle, the icon of Disneyland Park.
 * The words "gemini" and "cancer", the third and fourth astrological signs in the zodiac, are written on the ceiling inside Merlin's Tower.
 * A behind the scenes photo posted on Instagram reveals that the names of other astrological signs are also painted on the ceiling. However, they do not show up on-screen.


 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The computer-generated set used for the castle courtyard is recycled from the computer-generated imagery model for the King's castle in "The Price of Gold", King Xavier's castle in "The Miller's Daughter" and the Maritime Castle in "Ariel". This can be seen from the archways and the railing on top of them, which have a very similar design.
 * The area around the courtyard stairs, that was added to the CGI model for the Camelot Castle, was recycled for a courtyard in the King's Castle in "The Other Shoe", which can be seen from the almost identical design of the windows and the balustrades. The Camelot Castle's version of the archways (re-cycled from the old CGI model for the King's Castle) were also re-used for "The Other Shoe", where the courtyard of the King's Castle have archways with the same design.


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * The Camelot Castle bears a striking resemblance to the Sleeping Beauty Castle, the icon of Disneyland Park.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The Round Table prop was later re-used as the Sultan's meeting table in his palace in "A Wondrous Place". The chairs are also the same.
 * One of Merlin's Books is a facsimile of page 392 of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, a work of Protestant history and martyrology by the sixteenth century English historian and martyrologist John Foxe, published in 1563. The opposite page and two other pages also seem to be taken from the book: While the text mostly illegible, the pages have the same layout as Foxe's book (two columns separated by a vertical line).
 * Another one of Merlin's books (also seen upside-down) contains a facsimile of page 654 and 655 of Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
 * As Emma and her family are planning to attack, a blueprint of the Camelot Castle is lying on the diner counter.

Set Dressing

 * In Arthurian heraldry, King Arthur's coat of arms is depicted as three or (yellow) crowns against an azure or gules (blue or red) background (in thirteenth century manuscripts), or thirteen crowns against an azure background (in later texts). On the show, King Arthur's coat of arms is a single yellow crown surrounded by four yellow sea-wyverns against a red background (note that there is also a version with a red crown and red sea-wyverns against a yellow background). A sea-wyvern is a legendary creature with a dragon's head and wings, a reptilian body, two legs, and a fish tail. It is the sea-dwelling variant of the creature known as a wyvern.
 * The banners outside the tent where "Prince Eric" is staying in Agrabah in "A Wondrous Place" feature the same motif and design.
 * The seats around the Round Table carry black and white versions of the coats of arms of King Arthur and his knights. While a few are original to the show, others are taken or adapted directly from Arthurian heraldry:
 * Sir Kay's coat of arms from the legend, which shows two keys back to back; even though Sir Kay has a different coat of arms on the show.
 * Sir Percival's coat of arms from the legend, which is fenced with crosses However, on Once Upon a Time, Percival's actual coat of arms (a lightning bolt against a red and blue background) is from the cover of the band's double live album Steal Your Face (1976).
 * A modified version of Sir Beloberis' (an obscure knight from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur ) coat of arms. The original version is semy (covered with small objects, spaced in a regular pattern) of crescents crest with three bends (a band running from the bearer's right side corner of the shield to the bearer's left side). The show's version has fewer crescents, there are no bends, and a sword has been added.
 * A modified version of Sir Lionel's crest. In legend, it is semy of molets (stars with straight-sided rays) of six (or five) points, three bends. The show's version has only four mulets and no bends, and additional motifs have been added.
 * A slightly modified version of Bagdemagus' coat of arms. The original contains three sinister (left) gloves fingers upward. The shows version contains dexter (right) gloves instead.
 * A modified version of King Claudas' crest. While the original shows a single pine tree, the show's version contains two different trees.
 * The skull of a saber-toothed cat is lying on the table in Merlin's tower. The same skull can be seen in the tower when Merlin tethers Nimue to the Dark One's Dagger hundreds of years earlier.
 * A chest covered in rust is sitting on a shelf in Merlin's Tower. It has the same design as the silver chest used by the Evil Queen to store Rocinante's heart in "The Thing You Love Most", a chest which Regina later retains in the Mayor's office.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.