Le Palais Ideal du Facteur Cheval

"Le Palais Ideal du Facteur Cheval, was built pebble by pebble by a French mailman. Inspired by the pictures of exotic locales he saw on the postcards and magazines he was delivering, he began to build the ornately detailed structure using interesting pebbles he collected along his route. That meant that he was hauling packages during the day, and for 33 years, spent his nights constructing the grotto. In fact, he was so consumed by the project that he sent his son to live with the boy's godparents after his wife died. Although he wasn't allowed to be buried in his castle, he was able to build his own mausoleum in a cemetery using the same technique as his masterpiece." -Roadtrippers    April 1879. During one of his rounds, Ferdinand Cheval, rural postman, 43, stumbles against such an odd stone that it awakes a dream. Real self-taught, he devotes 33 years of his life to build a dream palace in his garden alone. His inspiration comes from nature, postcards and the very first illustrated magazines that he deals.  During his daily country rounds of about 18 miles and with the help of this faithful wheelbarrow he pickes up stones. Alone, misunderstood, he writes down on his building “The work of one man”. His dream palace gets completed in 1912. In the heart of a flourishing garden, he imagines a uninhabitable palace populated by an incredible bestiary: octopus, hind, caiman, elephant, pelican, bear, birds… But also giants, fairies, mythological figures or architectures from all the continents. An architectural work as unclassifiable as universal.  Unique in the world, the Ideal Palace has inspired artists for more than a century. Independent from any artistic trend, built with no architectural rules, the Ideal Palace has been admired by the Surrealists and is considered as an Outsider Art work. He has been classified Historical Monument in 1969 by André Malraux, French Minister for Cultural Affairs at that time under Naïve Art.