Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
Two palaces
It is two palaces joined, and the largest Gothic building of the Middle Ages
The Palais is two joined buildings: the old palace of Benedict XII, on the rock of Doms, and the new palace of Clement VI, the most extravagant of the Avignon popes. Together they form the largest Gothic building of the Middle Ages.
1309
In 1309 a pope who feared the chaos of Rome moved the court to Avignon
In 1309 Pope Clement V, unwilling to face the violent chaos of Rome after his election in 1305, moved the papal Curia to Avignon. The reconstruction of the old bishops' palace was begun in earnest by Pope Benedict XII, who reigned from 1334 to 1342, and continued by his successors to 1364.
The library
The papal library was the largest in Europe, and Petrarch came to read
The papal library in the Palais was the largest in Europe at the time, with over 2,000 volumes. It attracted clerics passionate about belles-lettres, among them Petrarch, the founder of humanism. Composers and singers were drawn to the Great Chapel, where Clement VI used the Mass of Notre-Dame of Guillaume de Machaut.
A schism
The popes went back to Rome, and an antipope was besieged here
The popes left Avignon in 1377 and returned to Rome. This led to the Papal Schism, during which the antipopes Clement VII and Benedict XIII made Avignon their home until 1403. Benedict XIII was imprisoned in the Palais for five years after being besieged in 1398.
1790
After the Revolution it was a barracks and prison, and a massacre happened here
When the French Revolution broke out in 1789 the Palais was already in a bad state, and it was seized and sacked. In June 1790 it was the scene of a massacre of counter-revolutionaries. It then served as a barracks and prison, and was vacated only in 1906, when it became a national museum.
Day 4, morning
Next is Pont d'Avignon.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Palais des Papes, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.