LES EPESSES, France — In the heat of August, beneath the Vendée’s tall trees and among artisans at work — carving wood, sculpting saints, blowing glass, making candles, shaping jewelry and illuminating manuscripts — the atmosphere at Puy du Fou transports visitors into another world.
Founded in 1977, this vast historical theme park is unlike any other: a cultural institution where history is not narrated but embodied, on grand stages, in immersive villages, and through living heritage.
Every corner of this land, once scarred by the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the tragedies of the Vendée uprising (1793-1796), tells stories of martyrs, nobles, peasants, revolutionaries and kings. These episodes — marked by both glory and grief — are united by the Christian identity that shaped France’s enduring grandeur.
Over the years, the park has gained wide international acclaim, most recently crowned in Hollywood in 2024 with the award for “Best Show in the World.” Earlier honors include “Best Park in the World” in Los Angeles (2012) and Orlando (2014), “Best Show of the Year” in London (2020), and “Best Show in the World” in Vienna (2023).
History as Protagonist
To understand what makes Puy du Fou distinct, Nicolas de Villiers, its current president and son of founder Philippe de Villiers, points first to the park’s scale and ambition. More than a leisure park, it is a vast stage where history itself is the protagonist.
One show explains the Musketeers, who were loyal to Queen Anne and were in conflict with Cardinal Richelieu, who also served as France’s first minister.(Photo: ARTHUR AUMOND, courtesy of Puy du Fou)ARTHUR AUMOND
Visitors wander through immersive villages, sit in grand arenas, or dine in themed hotels where every detail is meticulously researched. Villiers emphasized that the true strength of Puy du Fou lies in its universality.
“At Puy du Fou we do not try to flatter passing fashions; we aim to surprise visitors with what is timeless,” he told the Register, stressing that the park seeks to awaken deeper desires through beauty, history and ideals that rise above the distractions of modern life.
This vision is visible everywhere — in the precision of costumes and architecture that transport spectators across centuries and in the commitment to storytelling that transcends ideology. For Villiers, Puy du Fou must remain a haut lieu, a high place where audiences are united by shared beauty and memory.
Confronting Silenced Memories
Open from spring through early autumn, Puy du Fou brings history to life across a vast sweep: antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Belle Époque and the Great War. Central to its mission is the decision to stage even the most painful chapters of the nation’s past — above all, the French Revolution and the Vendée uprising, when peasants and nobles alike, faithful to the Catholic Church and the king, were massacred — around 200,000 victims in total — in what many historians now call a genocide.
The Cinéscénie, currently the world’s biggest night show, confronts this silenced memory head-on. Performed 28 times each year across 23 hectares, with 3,000 volunteer actors and some 30,000 costumes, the spectacle draws tens of thousands of spectators who witness the story of the Vendéens, a story long omitted from national narratives.
The world’s biggest night show unfolds.(Photo: Martin Sylvos, courtesy of Puy du Fou)
Another production, Le Dernier Panache (“The Last Panache”), recounts the life of Vendée War leader Gen. François Athanase de Charette, who also fought in the American Revolution, with as much historical precision as dramatic intensity, offering a moving testimony of fidelity and sacrifice.
One production recounts the life of a Vendée war leader with connections to the American Revolution.(Photo: Apolline Cornuet, courtesy of Puy du Fou)
In honoring Charette and the Vendéens, the park echoes the Villiers family’s own ancestral ties to both the Vendée land and the American Revolution. Villiers recalled that on both his father’s and mother’s side, his ancestors included two prominent officers in the French Navy who fought alongside Americans in the War of Independence. He still proudly displays in his office the certificate recognizing him as a “Son of the American Revolution.” That bond of shared sacrifice resonates strongly with American visitors, showing that Puy du Fou tells not only the story of France, but of Western civilization itself.
From Vikings to the Great War
Viking history is dramatized here.(Photo: Solène Tadié)
Other productions broaden this panorama. Medieval knights clash in tournaments; Belle Époque romances unfold with Le Mime et l’Étoile (“The Mime and the Star”), an award‑winning show that intertwines the wonder of cinema’s birth with the heartbreak of World War I; falcons wheel across the skies; and Renaissance pageantry dazzles with color and grandeur. Music and poetry accompany each narrative, reviving the nobility of the French language, while live translations in English, Spanish, German and Dutch allow international visitors to follow along.
Medieval pagentry at Puy du Fou(Photo: Apolline Cornuet/courtey of Puy du Fou)
The result is a repertoire that combines historical rigor with artistic splendor, inviting audiences to rediscover beauty across every era.
“Our goal is not to give visitors what they already like, but to lead them toward what they will come to love,” Antoine Besse, director of international shows, told the Register.
Another highlight of the park is the presence of the ring of Joan of Arc — the only surviving relic of the saint — preserved across centuries and recently returned to French soil through Villiers’ daring acquisition in England, now displayed in a Renaissance hall. Its presence at the site reminds visitors that the saints are not distant legends but living companions in France’s journey, shaping its identity and inspiring its future.
The ring of St. Joan of Arc is on display at the theme park.(Photo: Solène Tadié)
Rooted Ecology
Puy du Fou’s reputation also rests on another dimension of heritage: its overarching commitment to the land. The park’s very name reflects this rootedness: Puy du Fou means “hill of beech trees,” with puy from the Latin podium (“hill”) and fou from the Vendée dialect faou (“beech”), a tree long linked in local folklore with inspiration.
Short supply chains, local artisans and traditional architecture root beauty in Vendée soil, nourishing the local economy while respecting creation. Long before “green” became fashionable, Puy du Fou has seen its creation protected and doubled its forests. It now covers 100 hectares and home to 3,000 plant species and more than 2,200 animals, from wolves to horses to 1,000 birds of prey. Animal welfare is paramount, with the Falconry Academy of Puy du Fou (the largest in Europe) dedicated to conservation and reintroduction of endangered species. Partnerships stretch worldwide, from South Africa to Argentina.
When Beauty Conquers
What is deeply rooted in French history speaks universally. Families from every background are drawn to the park. More than 4.2 million visitors came in 2024 alone, making Puy du Fou the world’s leading creator of shows. International recognition has only confirmed what audiences already knew: Beauty conquers.
And the story goes on. A new Puy du Fou park opened in Spain in 2021, and the group is engaged in active collaborations abroad, including in the Netherlands, while also exploring further opportunities in the U.K. and the U.S.
Most audaciously, plans are underway for a “Grand Tour of France” by train, set to launch in 2026: a week-long journey weaving together the nation’s cathedrals, castles and landscapes in a moving theater, complete with a three‑star chef.
“France is our most beautiful show,” Villiers concluded with a smile, recalling that the nation was born with the baptism of Clovis in 496, when king and people together embraced Christianity at Reims. For Villiers, this founding act forever bound France’s destiny to the Church.
For Americans who cherish France, Puy du Fou unveils part of the nation’s soul — a voice that still has so much to say to our time, carrying echoes of their own history.
“Whoever you are, wherever you come from, you have a soul,” said Villiers. “And when you speak to the soul, you transcend all barriers.”