Stone Marvels of the World
From the beginning of times, stone has been the construction material by default.
From Stonehenge, passing by the pyramids in Egypt, the monolithic heads in Easter Island, and the temples in Cambodia, stone has been subdued, molded, and carved throughout the centuries by strong and skilled hands, always present in countless monumental constructions that give account of man’s ingenuity and dexterity.
However, stone has also served as a medium to express human’s imagination in smaller, yet no lesser works.
Here we explore three of them, all of them conceived and built by self-taught men, without any formal knowledge of art or construction, and who shared a same ideal: to see their dreams come true in solid stone.
Three stories that have in common the raw material and the perseverance of three men of uncommon ingenuity, who did not cease in their efforts until they saw the fruit of their imagination come to life.
The Dream Palace of a Postman
It was 1879 in France. The rural postman Joseph Ferdinand Cheval rode his usual route on a bike, when he suddenly stumbled on a Stone. Upon closer examination, Cheval found it so beautiful and unique that he saved it.
The following day, he found other similar stones in the same area. “Since nature wants to make sculptures,” he told himself, “I’ll make masonry and architecture.”
Inspired by the images of the postcards and magazines that he distributed daily, Ferdinand Cheval focused on making his dream come true: an ideal palace borne out of his imagination, similar to the grandest and most exotic palaces around the world.
Day after day, after he finished his postman shift, Cheval worked on his building, often well into the night.
Counting with only rudimentary education and without any training in architecture, construction, or masonry, Cheval gave shape to his ideal palace with his own hands, using stones that he found on his way, seashells, and clay.
Once the construction started emerging, and the neighbors in the area began to notice it, some criticized the irregular and unorthodox look of the building. But Cheval continued its construction, fiercely focused on his dream.
In 1912, and after 33 years of sustained effort, Ferdinand Cheval finished his work.
By then, his ideal palace accounted a veritable stone menagerie, a space inhabited by giants, mythical creatures and unexpected beings, intertwined with exotic landscapes borne out of Cheval’s imagination, including a fountain of running water with a cascade.
Since then, the fantastic creation of the creative postman captured the attention of the world.
Although Cheval had planned to use part of the palace as his place for eternal rest, the French State did not allow it. In face of this denial, Cheval went on to build his own mausoleum at the Hauterives cemetary.
The new construction took him 8 years to complete, and it’s almost as elaborate and fantastical as his Ideal Palace. There lie his remains up to this day, along with those of his wife.
The Ideal Palace of the “Postman Cheval” in Chateneuf-de-Galaure became a compulsory site of pilgrimage for the surrealists, and the followers of this artistic movement.
In 1920 André Breton names it a forerunner of surrealist architecture.
Years later, Max Ernst created a work in honor of Ferdinand Cheval , and photographs of his mythical palace were exhibited at the Museum of modern Art in New York.
Picasso, Tinguely, and Nikki de Saint Phalle declare themselves admirers of Cheval’s work, considering it akin to Gaudí for its organic shapes, and to Dalí for its extravagance.
In 1969, Postman Cheval’s Ideal Palace was proclaimed National Monument of France, and up until that moment was considered the only work of naïve architecture in the world.
Nowadays, tourists continue to visit to admire the capricious and fantastic creatures that emerge from all angles of this singular building, imagined by a humble postman who did not hesitate to put hands to work in order to make his dream come true.
Video - Palais Ideal (6:30”)
The Abbot and the Stones of Rotheneuf
In 1894, at age 55, and ailed by the side effects of a vascular accident that left him partially deaf, the Abbot Fouré moved to the sea town of Rotheneuf, to spend the rest of his days as a hermit, dedicated to prayer and meditation.
But destiny and the Breton coastline had a surprise in store for him.
As he strolled the shoreline, the capricious forms of the rocks there stirred the imagination of the creative man of God. The natural irregularities of granite suggested him images of historical characters, almost as if drawn from the books that he had read from childhood.
Stimulated and inspired by the surroundings, the priest began to sculpt the Stone, giving shape to the images that only his eyes could see.
Recruiting the help of a peasant, and using several implements – from pikes and shovels, to hammer and chisel, and even tar – the Abbot and his helper began to change the landscape, filling it with all kinds of characters.
Cleopatra, the Queen of Sheba, Queen Victoria, the explorer and Rotheneuf native Jacques Cartier, Merlin and Gargantua are only some of the carvings that can still be seen up to this day.
For 13 years, the Abbot Fouré sculpted the raw stone using no more guidance than his own imagination, bringing into life over 300 figures of different sizes and inspirations: legendary saints, characters from the current events of the time, members of the community, even landscapes from exotic cultures such as China, Russia, and Japan.
When he finished his sculptures, the priest painted them with several colors in order to enhance them further and protect them from the elements. Each winter, the Abbot and his helper would pluck out the weeds and renewed the carvings, in order to have them ready for the visitor’s season.
For, the monumental Rotheneuf sculptures attracted visitors from the start of the XX century, and in 1925 it was already a compulsory point of visit to anyone traveling along the coast of Brittany.
Unfortunately, in 1907 the Abbot suffered another vascular accident which left him half-paralyzed, having to suspend all his activities, dying only three years later.
Throughout the years, the Abbot Fouré also made dozens of wood carvings and sculptures, representing religious images, political characters, mythical figures, totems, animals, etc. Unfortunately, most of them perished in 1944 during a fire that consumed the priest house, turned into a museum and where the works were exhibited.
However, his open air sculptures continued to attract visitors, capturing the eyes of the world.
The Abbot was even called the “Breton Postman Cheval” due to the parallelism of their works, although the priest died years before Cheval completed his own work.
Nowadays, the sculptures on the shoreline can still be seen and, although they have lost almost every trace of paint and are in serious danger of disappearing due to the natural erosion of the climate and the waves, they are still a fantastical vision, borne from the mind and the constant effort of its creator.
Video - Les Rochers esculptes de Rotheneuf (3:36”)
Juan Félix Sánchez and the Chapel at the Edge of Heaven
It was 1943 when, after the death of his mother and not having a wife or children with whom to live with, the artisan Juan Félix Sánchez moved to San Rafael de Mucuchíes, a remote area of the Venezuelan Andes and the highest inhabited town in the country, in order to live a quiet life of contemplation.
However, the gorgeous solitude of the Andean moor inspired him the creation of a monumental endeavor: a cathedral in which the landscape and religious contemplation would blend.
“God made all creatures,” said Sánchez once. “He made wood sticks and stones too. Thus, in loving them, we love God.”
Without any more than his own hands and his simple artisan tools, Juan Félix Sánchez began building up, stone by stone, the walls of his dream construction.
Day by day, he collected and dimensioned stones, piling them up with precision, without the use of mortar to hold them together.
However, the endeavor imagined by Juan Félix Sánchez went beyond a simple church. His hands also gave shape to the square that precedes it, a variety of religious images, and groups of wooden sculptures, as well as the entire furniture of the church.
A titanic task that took him over 4 years of sustained effort to complete.
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