Palais des Papes

Avignon

When Clement V settled in Avignon in 1309, he lodged with the Dominicans: there was no palace yet. John XXII first converted the bishop's palace next to the cathedral; then Benedict XII entrusted his fellow countryman Pierre Poisson, from 1335 to 1342, with the Old Palace and its Pope's Tower. Clement VI added, from 1342 to 1352, Jean de Louvres's New Palace — the Great Audience Hall, the Great Chapel — a building site that employed six hundred men on average. Seven popes and two schismatic popes lived here; the last, Benedict XIII, withstood two sieges before fleeing in March 1403. Froissart thought it "the most beautiful and the strongest house in the world". The residence of the legates and then the vice-legates until the Revolution, then a prison, then a barracks from 1820 or 1822 depending on the source, it was listed as a historic monument in 1840 and inscribed in 1995 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the episcopal ensemble and the Pont d'Avignon. It adjoins the cathedral of Notre-Dame-des-Doms, which has its own entry.

Getting there : Open every day, paid entry; combined ticket available with the Pont d'Avignon.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound