“It doesn't matter how old you are and what you want to achieve in life, if you are courageous, persistent and ready to work hard, then success will surely come to you.” -Ferdinand Cheval
France is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Having a long history and culture, the most beautiful royal palaces and castles, cultural and antiquity monuments made by famous architects and builders, which have gained worldwide fame, have been preserved here.
But there is one extraordinarily beautiful amazing Ideal Palace (Le Palais Idéal), about which not many have heard and seen, whose architect and builder was the simple postman Ferdinand Chevalier, who became a masterpiece thanks to the master who, with his design, imagination, built an ideal, fantastic, unique a palace that is an example of true amazement and admiration. There is an opinion that only educated outstanding architects and craftsmen can create original masterpieces in art, but this is not always the case. There are people who reject the established belief that art and architecture are available only to professionals. Seeing the amazing Ideal Palace of Ferdinand Cheval, you can easily refute such an established opinion. Thanks to its history and architecture, the Ideal Palace became world famous during the lifetime of its creator and is considered one of the most impressive monuments of naive architecture in the world.
This is a story about following your dreams, despite the opinions of others, who do not always understand you. In 1879, a French postman gave free rein to his imagination and began building the palace of his dreams, which he called "Le Palais Idéal" or "Ideal Palace".
Let's take a look at the palace that he built for 33 years.
Ferdinand Cheval's Palace or Ideal Palace (Ferdinand ChevalPalace, IdealPalace) is located near the city of Lyon, in the small town of Hauterives and is called the "Ideal Palace of the postman Cheval".
This building has a unique and exceptionally special character. Both the author and creator of this most impressive palace of naive architecture in the world is Ferdinand Cheval.
Promotional video:
Joseph Ferdinand Cheval was born on April 19, 1836 in the French town of Charm-sur-Larbass. The boy grew up without much interest in studying, so at the age of 13 he dropped out of school and entered the service as an assistant baker. At the age of 32, Ferdinand and his wife moved to the outback - the city of Hauterive and became a rural postman. Conscientiously delivering letters, magazines and cards with pictures to addressees on which faraway countries flaunted. He himself dreamed of visiting beautiful distant countries, seeing magnificent beautiful palaces. They remained for a long time in his heart and imagination. Delivering letters on foot to addresses, he sometimes had to travel 32 km around the district.
The idea of creating a castle appeared in the head of Ferdinand Cheval on one of the working days, and it was on April 19, 1979, when a rural postman, carrying his mail, dreaming, stumbled over an amazing stone of an unusual natural shape and was struck by its extraordinary beauty in form. Ferdinand was so shocked by the unusual shape of the stone that he took this find for a divine sign. After carefully examining the find of the house, he returned to the same place the next day and began to collect stones. “And then I began to dream of building a palace, a magnificent castle. I didn’t tell anyone about my dream, because I was afraid that people would laugh at me. I myself felt ashamed of this idea,”Cheval wrote in his memoirs.
And he forgot about his dream for many years. However, the will of chance again brought him back to the idea of building a beautiful palace. “Fifteen years later, when I almost forgot about my dream, when I did not think about it at all, my leg reminded me of it. I stumbled over a stone, almost fell. I picked it up. The stone had such an unusual appearance that I put it in my pocket. I wanted to take it with me to admire it in silence,”Cheval wrote.
“Since nature has endowed me with building materials, I must become an architect and a bricklayer,” Ferdinand decided and returned to this place countless more times (over the course of 20 years) in the hope of finding the same amazing stones suitable for his design, and the search for him was not were in vain. Every day he collected stones during the day, and in the evening he returned for them. For 33 years he piled stones in his garden.
At first, Cheval carried cobblestones in his pockets, then he began to take a basket with him, and finally got a wheelbarrow - a stretcher for stones. Now he took her with him to work and delivering letters, at the same time collecting building material. At the same time he studied architecture of various countries and eras. With great perseverance and aspiration, he made his dream come true.
Ferdinand Cheval finally began to build his palace, after retiring, after 20 years have passed since the discovery of the first stone. With the help of the simplest tools, alone, he made his dream come true - he alone built his fabulous elegant palace. He connected the stones with lime and cement mortar and used wire. As a result, he spent the first two decades only building the outer wall.
And being already retired, he devoted all his free time to a grandiose goal. The construction of the palace was completed by 1912. For a long time, the locals were skeptical of the postman's plan, and considered Ferdinand an eccentric. But the result of his titanic work amazed their imaginations when they paid attention to the splendor of the palace.
The walls of the palace, outside and inside, are decorated with countless ancient inscriptions, mysterious signs, sculptures of gods, fabulous animals and incredible shapes of fountains, chandeliers made of stones and shells, objects that only Ferdinand knows about meaning. But as the legend says, the whole idea of building the palace began with the found stone, which still stands on the pedestal.
The palace resembles an incredible mixture of all styles and cultures - the Middle East, China, Algeria. Its dimensions are also impressive - 26 meters long, 14 meters wide and up to 10 meters high. On the eastern façade, the data of the palace are indicated: “10,000 days. 93,000 hours. 33 years of struggle, if someone thinks they can do better, let them try."
On the walls of the castle are carved sayings by which its creator lived. For example:
"For a heart burning with desire, nothing is impossible"
“Humanity, remember that you are just dust, only your soul is immortal” … and many others.
In the basements of the palace, Ferdinand built two crypts - for his wife and for himself, as he dreamed of being buried with his brainchild. The only desire of the modest postman, after gaining worldwide fame, was a request to bury him inside his castle, which is typical for original creators, but the French authorities refused, which is also very typical. And then at the age of 78, in a small city cemetery, he turns the family crypt into a work of art, he has been creating for 8 years all the same alone.
Formally, he turned this family crypt of the Cheval family into a continuation of his famous palace. In all his work for 33 years, which he devoted to construction, one can feel the spirit of his obsession, powerful and strong energy.
He died on August 19, 1924 at the age of 88, having outlived almost everyone he loved. This simple postman Cheval, who was considered almost insane because of his plan, built a beautiful divine palace that conquers with its unique originality.
Shortly before his death, he received recognition from the famous surrealists André Breton and Pablo Picasso and was named the founder of the art brut (rough art - fr.) Style.
The enormous hard work of a simple postman, who devoted 33 years of his life to creating the beautiful palace of his dreams, was crowned with world success. In 1969, under the De Gaulle government, the Minister of Culture officially announced that the Ideal Cheval Palace was given the status of a historical monument. And later (1975) and the Tomb were considered by criticism to be the masterpieces of naive architecture and taken under the protection of the state.
Cheval's vision of the world did not contain the concept of borders between countries. The world united by universal love, these are the main motives for its creation, the Bible says everyone should create their own church. He built his church as he felt and saw.
In recent years, when the Ideal Cheval Castle became a popular tourist destination, Ferdinand Cheval was eager to show and talk about his creation. Ferdinand Cheval died in 1924, at the age of 88.
Only in 1969, the French Ministry of Culture announced the official status of a historical monument to the Ideal Palace. The efforts of prominent figures of world culture, Pablo Picasso and André Breton, also contributed to this decision.
Cheval is dedicated to the film "Le Facteur sonne toujours cheval" by Chris Marker in 1992 and the film of the Moscow Museum of Outsider Art "The ideal palace of the postman Cheval" in 2008
And this is the official site of the Ideal Palace of the postman Ferdinand Cheval: www.facteurcheval.com. Here you can find out both the opening hours of the Palace and the cost of tickets. By the way, there are also pleasant concerts at the walls of the palace, the art of Art brut, to which we can include Cheval.
Location of the Palace of Cheval: France, Drome department, Hauterives near Châteauneuf-de-Galaure.
Coordinates: 45 ° 15 ′ 23 ″ N 5 ° 1 ′ 43 ″ E / 45.256309 s.sh. 5.028559 N
The ideal palace of the postman Cheval turned out to be a repository of different styles and directions of architecture.
From wherever Cheval did not borrow the elements of his architectural creation. There were also Middle Eastern motives, both Chinese and Algerian, even the influence of the Spaniard Antoni Gaudi was felt. It is no coincidence that the palace was called ideal - it turned out to be a collection of a variety of styles and trends of not only architecture, but also culture. So, on the walls, Cheval made inscriptions-quotes from Christianity and Buddhism, placed outlandish figures, some of which looked like statues of gods.
We can say that there was not a single free space left on the surface of the structure of the amateur architect Cheval, everything was filled with stucco molding, images, sculptures and other decorative elements. It turned out to be something impressive. As a result, in a rather nondescript French town, the Ideal Palace of Cheval immediately became a tourist gem, although, at first glance, it looked like a low children's fairytale town with stairs and balconies.
The palace, or as it is also called the Castle of Ferdinand Cheval, was officially recognized as a masterpiece during the lifetime of the author, who at that time was already decent years old (more than 30 years had passed since his retirement until the end of construction). By the way, a number of outstanding cultural figures of France, including the already mentioned Pablo Picasso and André Breton, insisted on this. In addition, the Ideal Palace of the Postman Cheval announced a new art form - art brut (French, rough art).
“I knew that people love to mock, and even persecute those who do not understand,” Cheval wrote. "I wanted to show what can be achieved with willpower." His work was enjoyed by Picasso himself, who created several sketches inspired by the view of Cheval's palace.
Cheval was very concerned about not turning his Palace into a "local landmark"; he wanted as many people as possible to know about it.
Throughout his life, an insane and painstaking postman wrote an autobiography, with the words from which we will end: "It does not matter what age you are and what you wanted to achieve, if you are brave enough, persistent and ready for hard work, you will certainly achieve success."