Location: South of France - Avignon - Department: Vaucluse (84)
Region: In Provence, but right on the border with Languedoc-Roussillon.
Distance from Paris: 689 km (428 miles) by road .
Nearest cities: Marseille: 98 km Lyon: 228 km Montpellier: 93 km
Nearest railway station: Avignon ville and Avignon
TGV.
Other access from Paris:
TGV train directly from Paris in 2h40
From London: Eurostar train via Lille or Paris. Direct service July - September..
For most of the last 1500 years, the Catholic church has had at its
head a pope, and the pope has been the Bishop of Rome. Yet the first
thousand years of the Papacy included centuries of strife and turmoil,
during which the popes, as well as being the spiritual leaders of the
Catholic church, were also temporal rulers, major players in the
geopolitics of Europe; they were princes with their own states and
their own lands, even their own armies.
Their
power was like that of kings, if not greater. The mediaeval Papacy
ruled directly over the Papal states in central Italy, and was a highly
influential player in the affairs of European states in general.
In the year 1271, Alphonse of Poitiers bequeathed to Pope Gregory X a
domain in the south of France, on the eastern side of the River Rhone,
known as the Comtat Venaissin, the County of Venaissin. Avignon, in the
south of the zone, was not actually part of the Comtat, but was the
most strategically important city in the area, on account of its bridge
over the river Rhone - the famous "Pont d'Avignon".
Seventy-seven years later, in 1348, countess Jeanne de Provence sold
the city of Avignon to the Papacy, who thus became the rulers of both
the Comtat and the principal city. This area remained Papal
territory until the French Revolution, when it was incorporated into
France.
The Papacy had already established a
presence in Avignon before it became a Papal city. In 1305 Pope
Clement V, who was French, decided to establish his Papal court at
Poitiers in France; but in 1309 he moved it to Avignon where it was to
remain for the next 68 years, under seven different popes, until Pope
Gregory XI moved it back to Rome. It was during this period that the
great fortified Papal Palace of Avignon was built, set up as a proud
symbol not just of spiritual but also of military importance, standing
as it does in a highly strategic position beside the only bridge over
the Rhone between Lyon and the Mediterranean sea.
In 1316, Pope John XXII started the process of rebuilding and
enlarging the Bishop's Palace in Avignon, and converting it into a
fortified palace. The main part of the building that stands in Avignon
to this day was built under Popes Benedict XII (Benoît XII), Clement VI
and Innocent VI from 1335 to 1362.
In 1377, Pope Gregory XI brought the Avignon papacy
to an end, by returning with the Papal court to Rome; but Avignon
remained a Papal city, and Gregory's departure was not the end of
Avignon papacies. The following year, the Roman Catholic
church was split in two when the Cardinals refused to follow the newly
appointed Pope Urban VI. Instead, they elected Robert de Genève as a
rival Pope, and returned to Avignon. Thus from 1378 to 1403, during a
period known as the Western Schism, Avignon was the seat of a rival
Papacy, its Popes referred to by the official church in Rome as
"Antipopes".
The older part of the Palace of the Popes, built under Benedict XII a
former Cistercian monk, is known as the Palais Vieux; it is the part on
the left when seen from the square in front of the palace, and is
essentially an austere fortress set round an interior cloister.
When Clement VI succeeded him as Pope in 1342, he set about
expanding Benedict's palace with a far more lavish and decorated
extention, known as the New Palace or Palais Neuf. It was Clement who
commissioned the Italian painter Matteo Giovannetti to take charge of
the decoration of the interior of the Palace. Unfortunately, a large
proportion of the paintings that once decorated the walls of the palace
have been lost in the course of time, but several of them remain,
including notably the ceiling frescoes of the prophets in the Grand
Audience room, the hunting scenes in the Pope's chambers, and the
decoration of St. John's and St. Martial's chapel, which survive as
masterpieces of late medieval wall painting.
Other points of interest in Avignon
The Avignon Bridge -
built in the 12th century and for a long time the only bridge across
the Rhone south of Lyon. A large part of the bridge was swept away in
the 17th century, and hos not been rebuilt since.
Jardin du Rocher des Doms.
Just next to the Palace of the Popes, this park is on top of the rocky
outcrop overlooking the river. Merits a visit on account of the views
over the river and over the rooftops of old Avignon.
The ramparts. Old Avignon is still largely surrounded by 14th century ramparts.
Further afield:The significant Roman remains at
Orange, Arles and
Nimes, plus the Roman aqueduct known as the
Pont du Gard. The old city of
Les Baux de Provence. The site of the
Fontaine de Vaucluse, where the river Sorgue emerges from the foot of a cliff.
Ile sur la Sorgue, famous for its antiques shops and antique fairs.
