Mesmerising ‘fairy castle’ built by hand by a postman – with Egyptian tombs, Swiss chalets and strange giants
A LOT of people dream about one day owning their own palace.
However, not many of those people choose to try and make those dreams a reality by spending 33 years building one by hand.
But a postman in France in the 1800s decided to do exactly that – and the results have been described as both “mesmerising” and “a work of art”.
In the small village of Hauterives, at the heart of the Drôme hills, Le Palais Idéal can be found still standing to this day, impressing the throngs of tourists who come to see the creation.
It has even been said to have inspired surrealist artists like Salvador Dali, while it has also been compared to architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
The palace started out as just a single stone that was said to have almost tripped up postman Ferdinand Cheval while he was doing his rounds in the village in South East France in April, 1879.
Cheval claimed that the pebble reminded him of a dream he had 15 years before the incident, in which he had stumbled over a stone while out walking, before turning it into a cavernous palace.
He is later quoted as saying: “I told no one about the dream for fear of being ridiculed and I felt ridiculous myself.
“A stone almost tripped me up. I wanted to know what it was and saw a stumbling block of such a strange shape that I dropped it into my pocket to admire at my leisure.
“I went back to the same place and found even more beautiful stones, and said to myself, ‘since nature wants me to sculpt, I will produce masonry and architecture‘.”
The local postie had no artistic or architectural training before embarking upon the project and its mish-mash of features suggests he was very much winging it throughout its construction.
Every day, Cheval would bring stones to his garden by wheelbarrow as he put together the folly, which he initially named the Temple of Nature, over three and a bit decades.
The Guardian describes the finished structure as “a manic fusion of biblical characters, animal gatherings, Egyptian tombs, stucco arches, grottos, fairies, fountains, popular sayings and classical columns”.
One of its facades is guarded by three strange gangly giants, who are supposed to represent Julius Caesar, Archimedes and a Gallic chief called Vercingetorix.
There’s also a mosque, a Swiss chalet, and oriental towers, with Cheval getting his ideas from photographic magazines, such as La Vie Illustrée and Le Magasin Pittoresque.
The postman also said that inspiration for the palace came in visions seen in a ‘trance-like state’ he couldn’t explain, but he recorded them and built them into his monument, according to New European.
They also list some of the palace’s many quotes that adorn its walls, including: ‘this monument was built by a peasant’, ‘remember that believing is achieving’ and ‘10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of struggle. Let those who think they can do better try’.
The building was eventually completed in 1912 and has since gone on to become a popular tourist attraction.
However, Cheval wasn’t finished with his construction work. According to Atlas Obscura, he wanted to be buried in the palace, but was forbidden by local authorities.
Instead, he spent the next decade crafting his own vault in the local cemetery, where he was then laid to rest after his death.
The palace remains a well-liked attraction and has claimed a TripAdvisor travellers’ choice award this year and has hundreds of five-star reviews.
One wrote: “This fairy castle was built during more than thirty years by a single man, a postman, who knew nothing about sculpture.
“The overall style is naive and absolutely one of a kind. I think its is mesmerising.”
Another described it as “a garden out of a fairy tale“.
A third added: “One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen on earth.”
Someone else who was equally as amazed by the palace was Tiktoker Manon Cogni (@mademoisellemanon07) who shared a video of her visit online.
In 2014 a museum was added to the palace to tell the story of Cheval, adding even more for visitors to see. Tickets cost between £3.50 – £7.80.
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