Megan & Vince's Excellent Adventure: Avignon - so pretty, Vince took 700 pictures.

Avignon is a magnificent walled city with towers, turrets, and city gates. No wonder the popes chose to live here for a hundred years (more about that in a bit). The walls (which still fully encircle the city) were constructed in the 14^th Century.

The city is winding streets, pretty squares, beautiful old buildings, and water wheels.

On our first walk around the city, we stumbled upon this building, the Livree Ceccano. It’s now a library used by both University students and the public. It was built in 1340 as a Cardinal’s palace, and then used as a Jesuit school from about 1570 to 1770. Doesn’t look like much from the outside, but quite a gem to stumble upon! In the interior pictures, you can see the original (faded) painting on the ceiling and walls, probably from the 1400’s.

The churches in Avignon, like many other towns, have their own distinctive style. The first that we visited is called Saint-Didier. The original church on the site was built in 1068, but it was re-built in 1359, and that is the existing structure as it stands now. The style is “Avignon gothic.”

The church is much rather plain on the inside (compared to many churches that were built during the Renaissance or after, but it just SO OLD, we were pretty awe-struck. The original stone floors are a bit uneven and worn away with age. Cool to stand on such old floors.

There is one very note-worthy art installation in the church, this stone carving/relief. “Portement de Croix” (I think translates to “carrying the cross”) was carved/painted by Francesco Laurana for King Rene in 1478. It's a pretty amazing piece of art - and so old.

Our walk took us through the main square of the city, with some of the important buildings, including the Hotel de Ville (town Hall) and the main theater:

We got to walk on the city walls, so it was a happy day for Vince:

Next to the Palace of the Popes is the Cathedrale de Notre Dame des Doms. It was built in the 12^th Century.

Again, what is striking about this church is how old it is. Since it was the church of the popes for a hundred years, it did have some carved stone and stained glass masterpieces.

This is the tomb of Pope John XXII, a masterpiece of the 14th Century.

Palace of the Popes

Finally, the piece de résistance of Avignon: the Papal Palace. Anyone who ever learned about the Avignon Papacy & the Great Schism, put your thinking caps on and try to remember… If not I’ll give you a quick clumsy recap. The pope (Clement V) left Rome in 1305 because Rome was chaotic & violent at the time – and he owned property in Avignon and liked it, so he moved there. Popes stayed in Avignon and legitimately ruled until 1377. Then, when the legitimate(?) papacy moved back to the Vatican, two “anti-popes” (Clement VII and Benedict XIII) stayed in Avignon “ruling” until 1403 (technically, Benedict XIII was imprisoned there for the last 5 years). From 1377, there were other Popes in Rome who claimed legitimacy.

ANYWAY, the palace. Pope Benedict XII started building it in 1334. He built the part that is called Palais Vieux (the old palace). A couple of the following Popes added on to the original building, and the new, larger “addition” was bigger than the entire original palace – Palais Neuf (new palace). The resulting structure now totals an unbelievable 11,000 square meters, 2.6 acres.

The palace has been the center of a lot of history, drama, and violence during its 650 years. Along with the sieges at the end of the Avignon papacy, it was sacked in 1789 during the French Revolution, and the site of a massacre in the counter-revolution. It was used for military barracks and prisons under Napoleon, and occupied by the military of various governments until 1906.

In a nutshell: The seat of the Pope was in Avignon for about 100 years: legitimately for about 72 years, and illegitimately for another 25 or so. During those last 25 years (1377 on) a second Pope was ruling from Rome, so it was quite a mess – by definition there can only be one Pope at a time.

So, here’s the Palace. It’s huge, almost doesn’t fit in our camera’s relatively wide angle.

This is the first courtyard that you walk through, at the entrance:

Next to the courtyard is the Treasury, where the pope kept… well, his treasures. At any time he would have had tons (literally) of silver, gold, and other valuables. He actually kept them under the stone floor:

Most of the castle’s furnishings and treasures are now gone, so the rooms are now empty and cold. The tour explained that there were once priceless tapestries and carpets all over the walls and floors. The tour also explained that the Popes of Avignon, with the exception of Benedict, lived extremely opulent lifestyles, with valuable treasures, all the available luxuries of the time, and a personal staff of hundreds.

The next courtyard that borders the dining room and living quarters looks very “castle-like.”

This was the dining room, where the Pope hosted wonderful banquets. The fireplace is enormous.

This is the Grand Chapel where the Popes worshiped, now used for temporary exhibitions:

This is the “lower chapel”, which was some kind of court - “justice was administered.” The Pope determined sentences, and his judgments were deemed infallible (i.e. not up for appeal).

The views from the top of the palace are fantastic:

The Market:

A couple of times, we went to the market (this strange plant-covered building) to pick up lunch – fresh-baked baguette and some olive tapenades and tomato spreads, and fruit.

Villeneuve – the town across the river.

Being the ambitious (or stupid?) walkers that we are, we walked to another town on the other side of the river, called Villeneuve. It has an interesting history because the town was built in the times when Avignon (and the rest of Provence) wasn’t part of France. So it was a border town built to “compete” with Avignon, and the fort was built to protect it (and the French border) in 1350.

After walking through the pretty walled city streets and poking around the town…

… We went to La Chartreuse, a monastery built on land donated by Pope Innocent VI in 1352.

The entrance is pretty grand:

The monastery has its own church – it’s been damaged in various wars, particularly the French Revolution:

Inside a sheltered part of the church is the mausoleum of the aforementioned Pope Innocent VI. The detail is unbelievable, especially considering that it’s from 1362.

The cloister (with rooms where they lived) are stone and surround a pretty courtyard.

Art students now live in some of the rooms! Gives a whole new meaning to "old dorms."

It had vegetable gardens, a laundry room, and even jail cells.

Possibly the most impressive room was the chapel with frescoes painted by Francois Des Royers in the 14^th Century. They have been damaged, but the colors are still so brilliant.

Next, we visited the Fort St. Andre, built 1350-1364. It lost its significance in 1481 when Provence became a part of France (so it was no longer a border town).

First, the very impressive towers, where a couple of administrative and judicial officers lived:

The view from the top was amazing (albeit windy) – the second picture was taken right before a gust of wind swept my hat away to the ground far, far below, starting an episode in which Vince darted down several stories of treacherous circular steps and I yelled down to the people below (in broken French) thanks for picking up my hat, it’s my hat, please don’t run off with it, the husband running down treacherous circular steps to get it!

Inside, the towers, the rooms and ceilings are pretty unreal:

We walked along the walls by the towers…

We wandered around the large fortress grounds with walls and structures, including this church, built in the 12^th Century and used as a parish chapel until the 14^th Century. Inside, there is a very early example of a circular staircase with no central “spine” – extremely rare at the time of construction.