Palais Ideal
Chateauneauf-de-Galuare
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After leaving school at the age of 13, Ferdinand Cheval became a postman. While out on his deliveries in 1879, he tripped over a large stone and found himself fascinated by its shape. From then on he started collecting stones daily, using his finds to build a strange and beautiful structure, his ‘Palais idéal,’ the Ideal Castle. The castle became his life’s work and he was soon carting stones around in a wheelbarrow and working through the night by the light of an oil lamp. The elaborate and atmospheric building, with echoes of Gaudi and Dali in its architecture, took him decades to complete and his neighbours scoffed at the effort he put into it. It was only just prior to his death that Cheval began to receive some recognition from the art world. Picasso, in particular, was impressed. These days the Palais is rightly regarded as an extraordinary example of one man’s commitment to his artistic vision, a true palace of dreams.
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