Page 51 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Provence & The Côte d'Azur

THE HIST oR Y o F P R o VENCE  49

Death of Clement VI
Clement VI came to Avignon Where to see Papal
to “forget he was pope”. In Provence
1348 he bought the town for
80,000 florins and built the Avignon is surrounded by
splendid Palais Neuf. evidence of religious and
aristocratic splendour. With the
presence of the wealthy papacy –
a kind of miniature Vatican –
abbeys, churches and chapels
flourished. The Musée du Petit
Palais (see p172) in Avignon
contains examples of work by the
artists who were encouraged to
work at the papal court.
Pope’s Room
Stag Room Frescoes
The hunting scenes are a
reminder that monastic life
was not only about
learning and prayer.
Villeneuve Charterhouse
Innocent VI established this, the
oldest charterhouse in France, in
the 1350s (see p134).

Stag
Room

The Great Chapel,
covering 780 sq m
(8,400 sq ft), contains Châteauneuf-du-Pape
the restored papal altar. John XXII’s early 14th-century
castle became the popes’ second
residence. The keep and walls
T T The Palais Neuf was built he Palais Neuf was built he Palais Neuf still stand today (see p168).
by Clement VI in 1342–52.
Great Audience Hall
Petrarch (1304–74)
The great Renaissance
Palais Des Papes poet Petrarch considered
The maze of corridors and rooms in the papal Avignon to be
Palais des Papes (see p172), built over 18 years a “sewer” and a place
(1334–52), were richly decorated by skilled artists of corruption.
and craftsmen introduced from Italy. The
building’s scale is overwhelming.

1362–70 Reign of Urban V 1378–94 Reign of anti-
pope Clement VII 1394–1409 Reign of
1370–78 Reign of anti-pope Benedict XIII
Gregory XI
1360 1370 1380 1390 1400

1377 Papacy 1403
1363 Grimaldis returns to Rome Benedict
recapture XIII flees
Monaco Anti-Pope Avignon
Effigy of Urban V Benedict XIII