Marilyn Thipthorpe
Ferdinand Cheval was a postman in rural France during the 19th century, though it is not his mail delivery that he is remembered for. One day in his 30s, Cheval was trekking his normal 18-mile postal route when he stumbled over an unusually shaped stone.
Intrigued by the way that the stone had been sculpted by nature, Cheval began collecting the many different types of stones found along the path and using them to construct Le Palais idéal (The Ideal Palace), an elaborate limestone cathedral complete with buttresses, pillars, and grottoes, buttresses and grottoes.
“I said to myself: since Nature is willing to do the sculpture, I will do the masonry and the architecture,” he wrote in his journal. The masterpiece took 33 years and over 10,000 journeys down his route to complete.