Avignon travel

Chartreuse pontificale du Val-de-Benediction

2008-12-06T11:07:00.002-08:00

Huddled at the foot of Fort Saint-André, the timeless and peacefull haven of the Chartreuse pontificale de Val-de-Bénédiction is hidden from view behind its walls. Concealed in the midst of Villeneuve, its discretion attests to the priest's desire to retire "to the desert", far from the sound and fury of the world. This composure almost mkes one forget theconsiderable dimensions of the largest and richest in Europe.

In 1973 it became a cultural center and houses the Centre National des Ecritures du Spectacle. From copyist monks to authors in residence, writing remains the main current in the range of activities now available here to dramatic authors.

Four centuries of Transformation

In 1352 the palace of Cardinal Etienne Aubert (his livrée cardinalice) was merely the residence of an important Churchman, a site inhabited by faith. A year later, the proprietor became the Sovereign Pontiff under the name of Innocent VI, and he bestowed the buildings on the Carthusian order.

The birth of a charterhouse, 1353-1360.

It took only three years to convert the cardinal's palace into a monastery. The structures gave themselves over to this easily enough. At the center was the church with its apse and three bays. Nearby, a dozen monk's dwellings were constructed, delimiting the cloister and the cemetry. Between the former livrée, the church and the cloister of the cemetry, a smaller cloister with cypresses and boxwood was created, with the chapterhouse at its back. Facilities necessary for community life were added, such as a laundry (locally called the bugade instead of the usual buanderie) and a bakery. High walls surround the ensemble. The church was consecrated on August 19, 1358, symbolically marking the achievement of the initial project. The work was financed by the pope's personal treasury.

Expansion of the monastery, 1360-1649

Only two years after its foundation the monastery underwent works of expansion and decoration. Innocent VI decided that he was to be buried at the Charterhouse. Thus, a chapel to house his tomb was added to the church. But the following year was a somber one for Avignon.
In 1361, the plague ravaged the city, and the victims numbered in the thousands. Innovent VI was spared. It is said that he thanked he Virgin for this by giving the Chartreuse the name Notre-Dame du Val-de-Bénédiction. He continued to provide for the site. When Innocent VI died in 1362 the monastery lost its protector, but his nephew, Cardinal Pierre Selva de Montirac continued to endow it, earning the epithet of second founder. In 1372 the number of priests doubled to 24, thanks to generosity of his gifts.

New cells thus had to be constructed. These were grouped around a new cloister, the Saint-Jean or upper cloister, built c.1372. The church also needed to be enlarged. A new bay, flanked with the Saint-Bruno and Saint-Michel chapels, was created. The brothers gathered in this new construction, while the old part of the church was reserved for the priests.

Pierre Selva de Montirac was not only generous scion of the Aubert family. Cardinal Audouin Aubert, Bishop of Ostie, and Cardinal Estienne Aubert, Bishop of Carcassone, also enthusiastically continued Pope Innocent VI's work, leaving large sums of money and reconstructing part of the site that was destroyed by fire. The extent to which the destinity of the Charterhouse is linked to this family is apparent. The generosity of the Auberts assured the community's accretion.

Other great local families followed the Aubert's example and donated land and buildings to the Charterhouse. It was thanks to these revenues that the monastery could both maintain its charitable works and commission the fine art works that kined its walls. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Chartreuse's estave was considerable. Its lands extended not only around the monastery (e.g., Avignon, Rhenish islands of the Rhône, Pujaut, Aramon, Sorgues), but also into the Comtat Venaissin and Pont-Saint-Esprit, where it possessed priories. It influence was extensive. It trained novices, instructed illustious men of the frock and scholars, and aided the poor in times of famine, plague and flood.

The Golden age of the Charterhouse, 1649-1793

The Charterhouse reached its apogee in this period, and it was the wealthiest in France. It housed nearly 150 people, forty of whom were priests and thirty of whom were lay brothers, with an equal number of servants and workers. The community's wealth was discernable in the gold, marble, tableauw and sculpture that lined its walls. A monumental portal had been planned, abandoned, and then achieved in 1649. Its Baroque luxuriance reflected the taste of the time. Louis XIV and his large entourage entered the Charterhouse through this portal in 1660.

At the turn of the eighteenth century, besides the chapel for the dead that was soon built in the cemetry's cloister, mainly non-explicitly religious building were added, i.e.; barns, a guest houses, wood storage, a hospital, a servants'kitchen and a new dome over the Saint-Jean fountain. But if only prosperity and serenity reigned inside the walls, the site could not avoid the French Revolution. Three dates suffice to describe the collapse of this world : February 14, 1790, the suppression of religious orders; November-December 1792, departure of the monks ; May 17, 1793, sale of themonastery.

Revolutionary times to the present day

Thus began the long night of the Charterhouse. The building was transformed into a stone quarry and barns, and deteriorated with the two hundred-odd families who come to inhabit it. In his Notes from a Voyage to the South of France, Prosper Mérimée describes his consternation upon discovering the state of Innocent VI's tomb : "September 11, 1834. Today I went to Villeneuve to visit the Gothic tomb of Innocent VI. The Charterhouse where it is enclosed was sold in parts during the Revolution.

The tomb, included in one of the lots, can be seen amidst a winegrower's hovel. Barrels, olive trunks and enormous ladders are piled up pell-mell in this little cubbyhole with the mausoleum.
It can't understant how all the little pinnacles, the light and elegant leafwork have survived the tossing avout of all these objects. There is nothing more delicate, more graceful, more rich than this stone canopy. A great number of alabaster statues used to ornament the base. These were sold off, one by one. And the owner of this hovel smashed in the base for storage ! While htis magnificent monument has been ceaselessly mistreated, it is still one of the most beautiful examples of fourteenth-century Gothic ornamentation".

It was another three quarters of century before this cry was answered. In 1909, the architect Jules Formigé submitted his Rapport sur la Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, to the Commission des Monuments Historiques. It is a scrupulous and well documented call for action. The state initiated its three-part action, Buy-Restore-Rehabilitate, which also took another seventy-five years. Parcel by parcel, the land and the buildings were bought up from the approximately three hundred owners who occupied them. Restoration was undertaken and continues.

Exemplary Restoration Sites

It was decided that the belfry would be restored to a fourteenth-century state, while evidence of changes would remain for the Saint-Jean cloister. It various transformations and uses, including its incarnation as a village square during the Revolutionary period, would be exposed. Time and the Revolution have altered La Valfenière's monumental portal. Given the volume of the tymphanum and the scultural subject-matter suggested by a miniature iconography, restorers created sculptures in the manner of Nicolas Mignard, taking their cues from an existing Virgin and Child. Innocent VI's features were copied from those of the recumbent statue on his tomb.

Armed with thes clues and advanced restoration techniques, the sculptors have endeavored to get as close as possible to a plausible restitution.

The Chartreuse, Cutural center

In 1973, local authorities and the Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites established the Chartreuse as a cultural center. The Tinel was restored and transformed under this cultural mandate. This building was originally the official reception of the cardinal's palace. It became the priest'refectory during the Chartreuse days, and is the ensemble's second largest building (after the church). Today it is used as a performance space that can seat four hundred.
The building has begun its new life as an innovative tourist site and as a fascinating new residency center, somewhat on the model of France's Villa Médicis in Rome. The rigorous reconstruction of the site, including its open-air spaces, makes it an ideal location for collective and individual projects, meditation and creative pursuits. It remains linked with Avignon, its festival, and its position as an international center for theater arts.

It has been a receptive international center for research, creative activity and events since the 1970s. In 1991 La Chartreuse became the Centre National des Ecritures du Spectacle, offering residencies for research and creative projects.

The writers'residencies are the focal point for a range of activities that aim to support and promote contemporary dramatic writing. A highlight of the Festival d'Avignon is the Rencontres d'Eté de la Chartreuse, when a large public can encounter contemporary theater.

Fort Saint-André

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The Fort Saint-André is a fortified enclosure flanked by watchtowers and featuring a monunental gate framed in twin towers. It was commissionned in 1292 by Philippe le Bel, king of France, to affirm the royal presence in the face of the Empire and the popes of Avignon. Fort Saint-André also protects the Benedictine Abbey and the small borough of Saint-André, which is known to have existed on mount Andaon since teenth century.

Hôtel Desmarets de Montdevergues

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This Hôtel was built in 1710 by François and Jean-Baptiste Franque for François-Elzéar de Cappelis –except for the facade, which was constructed in 1755 according to the plans of François II Franque, Jean-Baptiste’s elder son. This monumental facade presents a Tuscan colonnade in the center, surrounding a double door, and supporting a long balcony with beautiful iron work. The piano nobile features three Ionic pilasters surmounted with round pediments, while the windows on each side bear triangular pediments.

The sculpted decoration within the tympanum is of a later date. It represents waterfowl, symbol of the Desmarets de Montdevergues family who became proprietors of the hôtel in 1785. After having passed on to several different owners the building was publicly acquired in the first half of the nineteenth century to become the seat of the Country Council.

An entryway on Rue Dorée, to the left of the Hôtel du Département, leads to the Hôtel de Sade

Théâtre municipal

2007-01-06T04:22:00.000-08:00

Avignon has a special relationship with the theater and the opera. A taste for music has prevailed at least since the fourteenth century, and the activities of the municipal theater in the nineteenth century played an essential role in local life. Due to the use of already-present spaces, such as jeux de paume converted for representations, it was not untill 1732 that a theater was erected, on the Place Crillon.

In the nineteenth century this venue was considered too small and inadequate, and the city decided to construct another on the site of the Couvent of the Dames de Saint-Laurent. Completed in 1825, it bore a flat Greco-Roman style facade, with two superimposed colonnades surmounted by eight allegorical statues. It was designed by two Avignonnais architects, Bondon and Frary.

In 1846, it was destroyed by fire – Franz Liszt had given a concert there a few months earlier. A new construction was immediately undertaken, with the plans of two architects, Théodore Charpentier, of Lyon, and Léon Feuchères, of Nîmes. Completed in 1847, this edifice possesses a certain gracefulness and fits in well with the general design of the Place de l’Horloge. There is a large arcade on the second floor, topped by a tympanum decorated with the face of Apollo in the center. It dominates the entire facade and rests on the projecting peristyle composed of a series of columns separating three circular arches. Under the arch, two reclining children encompass the coat of arms of the city. There are medallions of Petrarch and King René above the two lateral doors opening onto the loggia.

At the bottom of the building, on either side of the large staircase, are statues of Molière and Corneille, the only works on the edifice by local sculptors, the Brian brothers. The originals (today at Le Thor) were replaced near the beginning of the twentieth century by the Avignonnais sculptor Jean-Pierre Gras’copies.

The interior is in the Italian style, with a pit level and four series of galleries.The impressive ceiling was done by the Parisian artists Dièterles, Sechan, and Desplechin, who specialized in the decoration of opera houses. The principal poests and musicians of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteeth centuries are represented in a series of portraits.

A high quality operatic auditorium, the Avignon theater-opera house hosts numerous musical and theatrical tours and produces many concerts. In July, during the Festival, it is one of the most sought after locations.

Pass the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) and you will find yourself in front of the chevet of Saint-Agricol.The vestiges visible below the base are significant Roman edifices that surrounded the forum. They were uncovered in 1977 during the construction of an annex to the mayor’s office. Upon returning to the Place de l’Horloge locate Rue Saint-Agricol, to the right. Almost immediately turn onto the small Rue Emile-Espérandieu which leads to the Palais du Roure. Take Rue Collège-du-Roure, and head towards the Place de la Préfecture.

Tour du Jacquemart

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The tower is the last vestige of the forteenth-century livrée (Cardinal’s palace) that became the City Hall in 1447, and is now surrounded by nineteenth-century buildings. This maneuver was criticized by Prosper Mérimée : « The tower is to be preserved like the partridged in Pithiviers, they are put into pâté with their heads sticking out ».

The painted coat of arms sculpted onto a keystone attests to the constructor’s indentity, Cardinal Audouin Aubert, nephew of Pope Innocent VI. Built between 1352 and 1363, remains of painted decoration (mock tapestries and foliage) can be discerned on two levels. Sculpted brackets and glazed tiles also date back to the original construction.

The installation of a clock (or horloge, which is another name for the tower, and the name of the plaza) dates to 1471. The original jacquemarts have been replaced with the current painted wood statues.

L’Hôtel de ville

2006-12-10T07:54:00.001-08:00

In 1447 the councils of Avignon bought the Gothic Livrée d’Albane from the Benedictines of Saint-Laurent with the intention of making it into a public building and transforming the tower into a belfry. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the regional council decided to provide the city with a genuine Hôtel de Ville (City Hall). The city’s architect, Joseph-Auguste Joffroy drew up the plans. To brighten the facade the architect Feuchères contribued a balcony supported by Corinthian columns and added peristyle columns.

This project was at the center of a larger debate pitting the municipality against one of the great defenders of the cultural integrity of buildings, Esprit Requien, who was supported by Prosper Mérimée.

The first stone was lain on March 29, 1845, and municipal service offices were installed in the old Hôtel des Monnaies building, in the interim. While construction was not completely achieved until 1856, the building was inaugurated on September 24, 1851 by the President of the Republic, Prince Louis Napoléon Bonaparte. Paul Poncet was the mayor of Avignon at the time.
The style is composite and differs at each level : round arches topped with double scrolled tympana on the ground level ; a series of rectangular windows on the mezzanine floor ; classic windows topped with triangular pediments and separated by pilasters on the second floor. The cost of construction reached 628.000 francs.

On the tower, on which a campanile was added in 1471, remains of the original cardinal’s livrée. The tower’s clock, from which the plaza gets its name, features statues of Jacquemart and his wife which strike the hour.The current statues were placed there in 1856.

The municipality of Pourquery de Boisserin undertook the adornment of the main hall by commissioning the ornamenter Edouard Lefèvre of Montpellier, and the local painters Meissonier, Jules Flour, Lina Bill, and Clément-Brun. The four groups of figures surrounding the main doors and female wrestlers at the top of the impressive fireplace of this enormous 90 meters plus room are the work of Félix Charpentier.

In 1978, the Hôtel de Ville added an annex on Rue Racine, behind this building. It was built on the site of what had been the headquarters of the Amis du Roi in the nineteenth century and, from 1840 on, was the Avignon gendarmerie.

Place de l’Horloge

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In Roman times a forum spread over the space now occupied by the plaza, Theater and City Hall. A simple crosswomen in the Middle Ages was the site of the city’s main market, with its butchers and herb sellers. Soon after the consuls acquired the livrée d’Albane for administrative purposes in 1447, it became clear that the plaza would have to enlarged. Construction lasted more or less continuously until the end of the nineteenth century.

Clearing around the administrative building in the second half of to the fifteenth century began to leave its imprint on the plaza. At the end of the seventeenth century a new edifice by Pierre Mignard replaced the butchers’shops. But it was destroyed some sixty years later. A project to en large the plaza went into effect under Jean-Baptiste Franque in the eighteenth century.
From 1791-93 some buildings on the southern side were torn down, and the plaza was renamed Place de la Révolution. In 1823 the Saint-Laurent convent was destroyed for the building of the new theater.

Thirty years later, the City Hall went up beside it. The Second Empire and the Third Republic gave the plaza its definitive shape. The southern structures, as the end point of a new Hausmannian boulevard or cours, were aligned, and plane trees (1860) and commemorative monument to Avignon’s and the Comtat Venaissin annexation to France (Félix Charpentier, 1891, today in the Allées de l’Oulle) were implanted. The removal of the monument and levain of areas at the north of the plaza diminished its general harmony.

Palais de la Commune

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Along with the construction of the bridge and ramparts, the erection of the Palais de la Commune in the beginning of the thirteenth century was a symbol of the city’s independence. This oft-reconverted building is located to the south of the Palais des Papes. Constructed as a donjon for the activities of the podestas or consuls, justice was delivered there. The stone tympanum depicting a knight preceded by a horse and followed by a man on foot dates from this period. Retrieved among other objects of the palace, it is now housed in the Petit Palais. This Palais de la Commune (small urban locality) was a palace of the comtat (region) after the fall of the commune in 1251, and until the Pope purchased the city in 1348. In the fourteenth century it became the palace of the marshal of the Roman court, the residence of papal officials in the next century, the seat of the vice-regency, and then an apostolic court-house until the French Revolution. It is currently privately owned.

At the foot of the imposing Saint-Laurent tower, which stands on the southern corner of the Palais des Papes, we enter the rue Peyrolerie, derived from peyroliers the old local term for boilermakers. This street, cut into the stone, with impressive walls towering on each side and spanned by a massive buttress, is one of the most unusual in the city.

Hôtel de Vervins

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The livrée (Cardinal’s palace) Saint-Martial occupied this site. At the end of the eighteenth century it reverted to Pierre de Vervins, Auditeur Générale of the Avignon Legation, who decided to build the present structure. The agreement for plans by Pierre II Mignard dates to 1687. The building is the twin of the Hôtel de Madon de Châteaublanc nearby. The same elements are employed, but in such a way that the two facades seem quite different.

This hotel has a projecting doorway surrounded by the interlocking quoins that also appear at the angles. The windows of the ground level are segmentally arched ; those of the piano nobile are rectangular and surmounted by panels with medallions framed by palm leaves. At the top and center is an open segmental cornice with Apollo’s head in its midst. After restoration and modification the luxury Hôtel de la Mirande now occupies the site. It took its name from the public square where it is located, also the name of a ceremonial hall (1518) in the Palais des Légats.

Rocher des Doms

2006-12-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Rocher des Doms is the cradle of the city of Avignon. Signs of habitation dating to the ned of the Neolithic era have been discovered on this bluff, such as a remarkable anthropomorphic stele. As a shelter and refuge for the avignonnais, it was fortified during Roman and Medieval periods, and its plateau soon encompassed cemeteries, chapels and mills. Large ramps permitted entry in the seventeenth century. The first steps towards transforming the Rocher into gardens were made in 1831 and continued throughout the nineteenth century. It was during the Second Empire that the gardens began to assume their current appearance. At that point pools were added and flora brought from the jardin des Plantes.

It is a very agreable and popular place for a stroll, ,with well-maintained plantings and statuary dating from the beginning of the twentieth century. (See Jean Althen’s Venus with Swallows, busts of Félix Gras, Paul Saïn, and Paul Vayson…) It also serves practical functions relating to the city’s reservoir system that can be seen to its sides. The sculptor Bottinelli’s Monument aux Morts was inaugurated in 1924, and fifty years later the grand esplanade over the new reservoirs became the place from which a magnificent view of the Rhône and its valley can be taken in. A delightful, breezy place for meditation and recollection, the Rocher des Doms has always been appreciated by the avignonnais – especially during ravages of the plague – because of the fresh air it provides.

After enjoying the gardens and stopping to admire the view of the roofs of Avignon from the chevet of the cathedral, take the Sainte-Anne stairs back down to the city. Turn right at the bottom of the stairs to discover Urban V’s orchard by passing through the former military store-houses, now devoted to cinema, jazz, dance and artists’ workshops.

The palace gardens and the gardens of Benedict XII, projecting over Urban V’s orchard, extend to the base of the eastern façade, which can be admired from here. This façade, with its powerful towers, is no doubt the pontifical palace’s most majestic. From lft to right, the first tower is the Trouillas, the tallest is the Latrine tower and the Cuisines tower features an immense pyramidal chimney. These are followed by the Saint-Jean and Etudes towers, the Papes (Popes) or Anges (Angels) tower, and the Garde-Robe tower. Upon leaving the leaving the garden, turn right onto rue du Vice-Légat, which leads to the Place de la Mirande.

Cathedral relics

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The lateral chapel built by Pope John XXII to house his tomb shelters a rich collection af liturgical ornaments and ecclesiastical plates.

Avignon and Provençal goldsmiths of the seventeenth and eighteenth century are all well represented, while a rare set of Spanish metal works from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century are from a recent donation. At the time of this addition, the baldaquin tomb of John XXII, made by an English stonecutter around 1320, was cleaned and returned to its original location. In the adjoining sacristy, the cabinets are topped by numerous reliquaries. These cabinets are the work of a joiner who later became a comtat politician, Agricol Perdiguier, for his Mémoires d'un compagnon (1854), as well as for the hinged cope chest (a cabinet for storing copes), which is still in use.

On the esplanade, at the entrance to the Rocher des Doms gardens, there is a monument to the city’s dead by Louis Bottinelli (1924. Take the gardens paths back doxn towards the plaza, and head towards the Petit Palais.

In front of the Petit Palais, below the Place du Palais, rue Vieille Juiverie is a reminder of the Jewish ghetto, or “Carrière des juifs”, that was relocated in 1221 to the Saint-Pierre parish. Now turn back towards picturesque rue Pente Rapide. At the bottom of its, slope, on the corner of rue du Puits de la Reille, notice the house of Jean Sudre ( François de Royers de la Valfenière and Jean d’Elbène, 1661). On the other side of the covered passage, at the corner of rue du Vieux Sextier and rue du Pont, is the Maison du Pagadour. Pagadour is the Provençal word for the paymaster of the legation. Cross rue Limas and take rue Courte Limas up to the Poterne Georges Pompidou ( it is to your left), leading out of the ramparts.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame-des-Doms

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The Cathédrale Notre-Dame-des-Doms ?which today is a metropolitan basilica-stands in a prominent position on the rock that overlooks the bend in the Rhône. Its silhouette stands out distinctly against the neighboring mass of the Palais des Papes, though the contrast is harmonious because of the proportion of its square bell tower. This serves well as the western facade, as the narrow dimensions of the edifice are emphasized by the lack of the transept. Erected in 1859 at the top of the recently re-gilded bell tower, a lead statue of the Virgin is visible from all over the city, which she protects with her outstretched arms.

The earliest historical reference to Notre-Dame-des-Doms is dated 1037, and a canonical chapter attests to it in 1096. However, it is generally agreed that the present edifice was not built until twelfth century, in three successive phases. The bell tower and the nave apparently date from the early years of the century.A few decades later, the cupola with lantern at the front of the choir was probably added, while the porch was only added to the facade in the second half of the century. In both design and decoration (capitals and freize), this porch shows the extent of the influence of Classical architecture, still a strong presence in the region, on Provençal Roman architecture.

During the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, the cathedral was enlarged by the opening of lateral chapels on the north flank, and the upper portions of the bell tower were reconstructed. After that, the only other major modification was made in 1671-72 because the chapter house was too confined within the choir. The architect Royers de la Valfrenière Jr. Built a new apse and François Delbène added a narrow tribune on each side of the nave, with the semicircular Roman arches.

Three pieces of early Roman furnishings remain : one parallelepipedic altar with a sculpted freize (in the choir), a tabular (in the first north chapel) and a rare Episcopal chair in white marble. The sides of this chair are entirely filled with the low-relief representations of Saint Mark's lion an Saint Luke's bull. The late Middle Ages represented by various mural paintings, located in the porch (with preliminary drawings directly on the stone by Simone Martini c. 1340 : Christ Blessing and Virgin of Humility), in the narthex (Allegory of Death, c.1320 ; Baptism of Christ, c.1425), in the adjacent area (Labours of the Seasons) and in the copula drum (Seated Virgin, c.1410). Two fifteenth century sculptures are of particular interest : Chris Suffering, in multicolored stone and a full length Christ Blessing.

Five paintings in the cathedral are by a painter who was a prominent in seventeenth century Avignon, Nicolas Mignard. The Parrocel dynasty, active in the following century, is also represented. The nineteenth century left us the décor of the chapel of the Holy Sacrament, attributed to Devéria. Begun with an encaustic painting technique, it was completed following the artist's ilness- by large canvases painted in the studio.

Archives départementales

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The departmental Archives owe their origin to an idea from the revolutionary period : the gathering all documents necessary for the functioning of the administrative seat of the department in one place.

On october 26, 1796 the Departmental Archives were initiated. They consisted of documents from administrative, judiciary and religious establishments that had been abolished, documents confiscated from fleeing emigrants, and documents from new departmental intitutions. This is how the charter of the bishopric of Avignon, archives from Galéans-Gadagne family, the prefecture and the regional council, civil registries and the Journal officiel were conserved in the Vaucluse.

Deposited in the Palais des Papes, on the site of the prison restored by chief architect Revoil in 1882, storage spread to the north and to the west of the cloister of Benedict XII, and into the Trouillas and Campane towers. Noteworthy aspects of the former palace remain, such as the decorative wall paintings covering the northern gallery, now occupied by offices, and an interesting fireplace in the Campane tower. But these areas cannot be visited for reasons of security. They are only partially accessible, for example, to researchers who use the reading room and to student groups who visit the site on school excursions.

Still, during the Journée du Patrimoine, two of the archival halls can be visited, as well as the palace's first chapel, the Chapelle de Benedict XII. Built with an inverted ship's frame for a ceiling, it was vaulted in the nineteenth century and comprises a particulary spectacular composition by virtue of its great dimension. It acommodates 2.5 kilometers worth of archival material ! Archival material is regularly exhibited in the entry hall, which is open to the public.

Hôtel Calvet de la Palun

2006-12-10T07:48:00.000-08:00

This Hôtel seals the southern side of the Place du Palais. It was built in 1789, making it one of the last hôtels built under the pontifical proprietor-ship of Avignon. Designed by Jean-Pierre Franque, it " embodies a fine reminiscience of thePetit Trianon " (A.Breton).

Hôtel des Monnaies

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The Hôtel des Monnaies is the earliest private Baroque monument in Avignon. A large inscription announces that is was built in 1619 by the Vice-Legate Jean-François de Bagni (1614-21), and that it is dedicated to Paul V, the reigning Pope.

The ornementation on the ground floor is interrupted by the central door an four windows. The rest of the facade is completely blind, and presents an extravagant sculptedécor. Above the dedication the coat of arms of Paul V is borne by angels and crowned with the pontifical tiara. Eagles and dragons, the charges of the arms of the Broghese family, can be seen on enormous garlands of fruit or perched upon the upper balustrade : The Vice-Legate probably also wished to honor the titular Legate of Avignon, Scipion Cafarelli (1607-21), the Pope's nephew, who was commonly called Cardinal Borghese.

Because the archives of the vice-legation were destroyed, nothing is known of the architect of this " most Italian of Avignon's facades " (J.Girard) ; a piece of Rome transplanted to the banks of the Rhône. It has housed the music conservatory since 1860. In 1984 it was renamed after Olivier Messiaen (1908-92) in honor of the Avignon native who became one of the most famous composers of the twentieth century.

Place du Palais

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The Place du Palais-des-Papes stands out as the city’s most remarkable architectural ensemble. Because of its exceptional character, due more to chance to planning, it has figured among the sites included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The east side is dominated by the facades of the Palais des Papes and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-des-Doms. To the west, the imposing and heavily ornamented facade of the Hôtel des Monnaies (constructed under the legation of Cardinal Borghese in 1619) is found side by side with buildings that sometimes demonstrate traces of past architectural moments, such as the Tour (Tower) de l’Officialité.
The north side of the plaza is enclosed by the elegant Renaissance facade of the Petit Palais. A stroll in the charming Doms gardens that overlook the plaza affords a wonderfull view.

The Avignon Theatre Festival

2006-09-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

Founded by Jean Vilar in 1947, the “Festival d’Avignon” is one of the oldest and most famous theatre festivals in the world. In 2004, the Festival has come under the direction of a new team made up of Vincent Baudriller and Hortense Archambault. Each year, an associated artist will provide specific colour to the year’s Festival : in 2006 for the 60th Avignon festival, artist Josef Nadj is the associated artist.
The Avignon Theatre Festival presents contemporary European creations during three weeks in July. It is the place for artists and audiences to come together, and is the scene of many contrasting aesthetics, origins and generations. It is both a source of avantgarde creation and a place of reference, and presents over 40 performances in twenty different venues ranging from small chapels to the legendary Honour Courtyard at the Palace of the Popes, seating 2000 spectators.

Museums

2006-08-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Calvet Museum
65 street Joseph Vernet
A small 18th-century mansion, with classical and modern art, Greek sculpture and a local prehistorical collection. The Calvet museum is rich in a collection of Fine art, paintings and sculptures of the XV-th in the XX-th century. Donation Marcel Puech: furniture, earthenwares, bronzes. Room of modern art Victor Martin: Soutine, Manet, Gleizesx
Opened all days except Tuesday, 10 hours(hr) / 14 hours (closed in January 1-st, in May 1-st, in December 25

Lapidaire Museum
27 Rue de la République
Located in the chapel of the 17th-century Jesuit College. Contains stone carvings and sculptures from the different civilizations, including a "bestiary". Presents part sculptured with the archaeological collections of the Calvet museum established with Egyptian, Greek, Roman and gallo-Roman details, but also with numerous objects of the daily life: funeral furniture, vases, glass factories.
Open: daily except Tue, 10h-19h

Louis Vouland Museum
17 street Victor Hugo
Decorative arts, especially for 18th-century French furnishings, porcelain and faience and tapestries. In a charming particular hotel, a rich representative collection of decorative arts of 17-th and 18-th centuries: Parisian furniture, earthenwares of Noon, Moustiers, Marseille, silversmith's trade, tapestries, paintings and a new collection of xuvres of Provençal painters and avignonnais of 19-th century.
Opened all days except Monday and 01/01, 01/05, 25/12

Requien Museum
67, street Joseph Vernet
A large herbarium (worldwide collection); local botanical, geological and zoological collections; excellent natural history library. Museum of Natural History based in the XIX-th century by Spirit Requien. Geology and fauna vauclusienne. Temporary exhibitions.
Opened from Tuesday till Saturday 9h-12h / 14 hour to 18H (except holidays)

Musée Théodore Aubanel
Printing implements and methods, and rare editions and documents about Avignon from the 13th to 20th centuries.

Angladon Museum
5 rue Laboureur
A rich art collection with some of the most prestigious signatures, in the private home of the art lovers who inherited them. Former particular hotel in the heart of old Avignon.
Opened Wed-Sun, 13h-18h; Summer 13h-19h

The Palace of the Popes

2006-08-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Palace of the Popes stands as the mighty symbol of the church’s influence throughout the western Christian world in the 14th century.
Construction was started in 1335 and completed in less than twenty years under the leadership of two builder popes, Benedict XII and his successor Clement VI.The Popes’ Palace is the biggest Gothic palace in all of Europe (15,000 m2 of floor space, which is the equivalent of 4 Gothic cathedrals).

The visitor can see over 20 rooms, scenes of historic events, in particular the pope’s private chambers and the frescoes painted by the Italian artist Matteo Giovannetti.
Avignon became the residence of the Popes in 1309, fleeing the violent chaos of Rome. The Palais was built between 1335 and 1364 on a natural rocky outcrop at the northern edge of Avignon, overlooking the river Rhône. The site was formerly occupied by the old episcopal palace of the bishops of Avignon. The Palais was built in two principal phases with two distinct segments, known as the Palais Vieux (Old Palace) and Palais Neuf (New Palace). By the time of its completion, it occupied an area of 2.6 acres (11,000 m²). The building was enormously expensive, consuming much of the papacy's income during its construction.
The Palais Vieux was constructed by the architect Pierre Poisson of Mirepoix at the instruction of Pope Benedict XII. The austere Benedict had the old episcopal palace razed and replaced with a much larger building centered on a cloister, heavily fortified against attackers. Its four wings are flanked with high towers.

The Popes’ Palace also offers the visitor continuous cultural activities throughout the year.A major art exhibit is displayed in the Great Chapel during the summer, and the most prestigious performances of the Avignon Theater Festival, created by Jean Vilar in 1947, are given in the Honor Courtyard of the Popes’ Palace during the month of July.

Avignon Blues Festival

2006-08-21T02:10:00.000-07:00

Avignon's annual festival features performances by contemporary blues singers from throughout the world.

In the first days of September Avignon is transformed into a Mecca for blues fans as the city's annual blues festival gets underway. Some top performers can be expected to appear at venues around Avignon and last year saw stars such as soulful singer Nora Jean Bruso and the country blues legend, Keith B Brown.

touristic routes

2006-08-13T04:27:00.000-07:00

An ancient Greek and Roman city, Avignon became in 1229 the City of the Popes, A major historical event, this was to be the starting point of a remarkable transformation. Having become a cultural cross road, Avignon attracted numerous artists and artisans who would showcase their talents in many delightful ways (paintings, architecture, sculptures)

Surrounded by walls, the inner city of Avignon is nowadays a high-point of tourism.
Walking its narrow streets you can discover magnificent churches and cathedrals, museums with sumptuous collections, as well as numerous luxury and quality boutiques. On the other side of the River is Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, a superb little town.

The Papes route

Avignon : Popes' Palace, Bridge Saint-Bénézet, ramparts, museums, old town.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape: old village, ruins, castle (14th century).
Bédarrides: bridge of "Ouvèze".
Caumont-sur-Durance: "Chartreuse de Bonpas".
Orange: antic theatre, roman triumph arch.

events

2006-08-13T04:26:00.000-07:00

Fete des Foins in Avignon

This traditional agricultural fair is held every year on August 6th.

This is a traditional agricultural fair held in the village of Montfavet just north of Avignon, featuring equestrian displays, cattle shows and exhibits of old-fashioned farming machinery (much of it steam powered). In addition, locals come from all over Provence to sell their gastronomic specialities. A great day out for all the family.

The event involves a number of cattle shows and equestrian displays, as well as exhibitions of old, steam-powered agricultural machinery.

restaurants

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leisure

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accommodation

2006-08-13T04:24:00.000-07:00

partner links

2006-08-13T00:51:00.000-07:00

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Wlcome to Avignon

2006-07-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

The city

Avignon is famous as the city to which the Popes fled to when leaving the corruption of Rome in the 14th century. The Palais they built, 'Le Palais des Papes,' is the world's largest Gothic edifice. It was largely emptied over the centuries, and its vast stone rooms are filled with little more than old frescos, but it is still an imposing building. The Ramparts themselves were erected to keep the plague and invaders out during the turbulent middle ages, when Avignon belonged to the papacy and not the French crown.

Its early history is much older than the popes, however. Avignon occupies a stragetic location for several reasons - it is at the confluence of two once-mighty rivers: the Rhône, still one of the biggest rivers in France, and the now largely-dammed Durance. Both were important routes of trade and communication even in prehistoric times. In addition, there is a long island in the Rhone that made it possible to ferry people and goods across, and later bridge the river, more easily than in other places.

The city is now sprinkled with buildings and monuments ranging from the new to the old, the very old, and the ageless.

Pont d'Avignon

Le Pont Saint-Benezet is a ruined bridge not far from the Palais des Papes. The bridge was built in the Middle Ages - before the arrival of the Papacy - perhaps partly to allow the local bishop to cross the river to Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, where the church authorities had installed themselves because of Avignon's then-infamous dirt and lawlessness.

The legend of the bridge's building is that a local shepherd, Benezet (a dialect form of Benedict) was inspired by angels to build a bridge. When his appeals to the town authorities proved fruitless, he picked up a vast block of stone and hurled it into the river, to be the bridge's foundation stone. Convinced by this demonstration of divine will, the bridge was swiftly built. The poor shepherd boy was canonised, and his chapel remains on the surviving portion of the bridge.

If the bridge was divinely inspired, the Deity must have quickly changed his mind, because before long the bridge became unsafe and, following numerous floods, mostly derelict. Originally, the bridge had 22 arches, reaching across to the tower of Philippe le Bel via the mid-stream île de la Barthelasse. Only 4 of the 22 arches now remain. A multilingual audio tour of the bridge explains some of the local history.

The well-known song "Sur le pont d'Avignon" (on the bridge at Avignon) refers to the bridge. The bridge itself is far too narrow for dancing or festivals - the original text of the song was "Sous (under) le pont d'Avignon", referring to the festivals and entertainments staged on the île de la Barthelasse. The current version was popularised by a 19th century operetta, whose librettist clearly assumed that 'sous le pont d'Avignon' would have meant in the river.