A French factor dedicated 33 years of his life to build this palace in the airs of Sagrada Familia
France is full of palaces, but there is one that surpasses others in terms of art and devotion: the Ideal Palace. Ferdinand Cheval, a French factor with no formal architectural or artistic training, spent 33 years of his life shaping this extraordinary structure by cementing together stones with strange shapes that he found on his tours.
The building of the palace began in 1879 and ended in 1912. The story is not trivial: after having stumbled on a " bizarre" stone, the one who inspired his dream, Ferdinand Cheval began to explore the path of his tour with his faithful brouette so that he could collect other strange stones and stones.
The Ideal Palace is located Hauterives , a city of La Drôme, which is roughly between Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Grenoble. It is open almost all year round for visits, and also often serves as a venue for concerts and art exhibitions.
We can read on the official website of Ideal that the latter, “one in the world, inspired artists for more than a century. Independent of any artistic current, built without any architectural rule, the ideal Palace has made the admiration of the surrealists, was recognized as a work of raw art. He was ranked in 1969 as a Historic Monument by André Malraux, then Minister of Culture, under the title of naive art. »
In the heart of a lush garden, this uninhabitable palace is populated with an incredible bestiary: octopus, birch, caiman, elephant, pelican, bears, birds... But also giants, fairies, mythological characters or cascades, architectures from all continents. An architectural work as unclassifiable as universal. Since Ferdinand Cheval was unable to be buried in his palace, at the age of 78, Ferdinand Cheval launched a new tomb in the enclosure of the village cemetery. So you can take a look.
Photo source: Bored Panda
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