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Origin and history

The Suppliques chalet was built in 1864 in Vichy, in the newly created park along the Allier (now Napoleon III and Kennedy parks), to serve as a dwelling for the guardian. Originally, two identical cabins surrounded the entrance to the Vichy Bridge, but the one upstream was destroyed in 1931-1932 when the Bellerive Bridge was built. His name comes from a legend: he collected the petitions addressed to Napoleon III during his spa treatments.

The monument combines a neo-Gothic style for its elevations and an overflowing structure typical of Savoyard chalets. It is inspired by Parisian pavilions of the Second Empire, such as those of the Bois de Boulogne, but remains unique in the Auvergne-Bourbonnais region. Rectangularly, it includes a cellar, a ground floor and a lofty floor, with windows decorated with double arches in braid. A landmark indicates an altitude of 259 metres.

Vichy experienced a boom under Napoleon III, who regularly stayed there. The engineer Jean François Radoult de la Fosse supervised the dam protecting the city from the flood of the Allier, as well as the development of the park and the construction of the chalets, designed by architects Charles, Waaser and Madin. A third cottage, destroyed in 1937, housed a dairy and a theatre in Guignol. The Suppliques chalet, registered with the Historic Monuments in 1990, now houses a rental of rosalies.

The upstream chalet, unoccupied after 1871, was rented as a grant office until its destruction. The rest, nicknamed the Suppiques, symbolizes the eclectic architecture of the Second Empire and the thermal development of Vichy. Its hybrid style and its Napoleon III history make it a rare testimony of this time.

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