Postman Cheval's ideal palace

April 1879. Ferdinand Cheval, a 43-year-old postman, bumps into a stone so bizarre during his rounds that it awakens a dream. Self-taught, he will devote 33 years of his life to building alone, a dream palace in his vegetable garden, inspired by nature.

Traveling about thirty kilometers every day for his rounds in the countryside, he will pick up stones, helped by his faithful wheelbarrow. He inscribed on his monument “one man's work”. His dream palace was completed in 1912.
In the heart of a lush garden, he imagines an imaginary palace, populated by an incredible bestiary - octopus, deer, caiman, elephant, pelican, bear, birds... But also giants, fairies, mythological characters or even waterfalls , architectures from all continents. An architectural work as unclassifiable as it is universal.

Unique in the world, the Ideal Palace has inspired artists for more than a century. Independent of any artistic trend, built without any rules of architecture, the Ideal Palace was admired by the surrealists. It was classified in 1969 as a Historic Monument by André Malraux, then Minister of Culture, under the title of naive art.
Labels: site safety, tourism and disability and tourism quality.

To come Drôme bus lines: D03 and D12

Pet Friendly : no

Groups accepted : from 15 to 200 people

Average visit duration for groups 1h30