Avignon · 1309 – 1403

The Palace of the Popes

Le Palais des Papes

A fortress of faith, ambition and survival. Discover how a refuge on the Rhône became a seat of papal power — and what remains seven centuries later.

The Palais des Papes seen from across the Rhône
▶ Watch the story 16 minExplore the palace →

An imagined reconstruction of medieval Avignon

Explore the palace

Choose a room to discover its story. The old fortress and the lavish new palace meet around the Cour d’Honneur. This plan is schematic; room positions are illustrative.

Today — what fire, revolution and a century as an army barracks left behind.

Standing Standing · décor lost Open courtyard Lost & destroyed areas listed below
Schematic plan of the Palais des Papes A stylised plan of the fortress with clickable rooms grouped around the central courtyard. Campane bell tower Consistory cardinals' hall Grand Tinel banquet hall St-Martial painted chapel Kitchen octagonal flue Cour d'Honneur the ceremonial courtyard — stage of the festival since 1947 Angels' Tower treasury · library Pope's Room birds & vines Stag Room hunting fresco Great Chapel 52-metre nave Audience court of causes Champeaux Gate · Indulgence window Trouillas Tower · prison & torture Papal gardens & orchard · Urban V — lost after 1789
Choose from all 13 rooms

Avignon, 1309–1403

Every room has a story

Choose a room on the plan or in the room list. Discover its people, compare past and present, and listen to its story.

Watch it rise and fall

Drag the years: the palace builds up wing by wing on the plan and the towers above, burns in 1413, then drains to grey during its century as a barracks — before its rescue.

today
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The palace in elevation

The plan is top-down, but the palace's drama was vertical — a wall of towers on the rock above the Rhône. Click a tower for its story. The dashed red arrow marks the high kitchen, which besiegers reached up the drains in 1398.

The palace in elevation A schematic side view of the palace towers rising on the rock above the Rhône, each tower clickable. Trouillas Angels' Tower · keep Campane Kitchen + flue Champeaux gate siege climb, 1398 the rocher des Doms, above the Rhône

The nine popes of Avignon — click to light up what they built

Voices & moments

Lost & destroyed