The largest Gothic palace in Europe — a fortress on the rock above the Rhône from which seven popes, and then two antipopes of the Great Schism, ruled Christendom. Raised in under twenty years by two builder-popes, with some six hundred men labouring through war and plague, it remains the largest Gothic palace ever built. Walk through its rooms, light up what each pope built, and uncover what time, fire and an army destroyed.
A stylised walkthrough map — not a survey drawing. The austere Palais Vieux (Benedict XII, 1335–42) and the lavish Palais Neuf (Clement VI, 1342–52) wrap around the central Cour d'Honneur. Click any room for its story and narration.
Today — what fire, revolution and a century as an army barracks left behind.
StandingStanding · décor lostOpen courtyardLost & destroyed areas listed below
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.
Avignon, 1309–1403
The largest Gothic palace in Europe
Seven popes ruled Christendom from this fortress on the rock above the Rhône — then two antipopes during the Great Schism. Click a room on the plan to walk through its story, click a pope to light up what they built, or open the lost areas below. Each panel can be read aloud.
The nine popes of Avignon — click to light up what they built
