Avignon · A story in five acts

The Palace
of the Popes

A refuge becomes a seat of power. A fortress becomes a stage. Enter the lives, ambitions and upheavals that shaped seven centuries.

18 scenes · 16 min 25 sec · Narrated in English

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Historical illustrations ·

← Palace guideThe Palace of the Popes

A story in five acts

About this story

A narrated interpretation of the Palace of the Popes, from the Avignon papacy to its life as a place of performance.

The images are AI-assisted historical illustrations, not documentary photographs or exact architectural surveys. Five new act illustrations were created with Higgsfield. Some scenes use symbolic compositions. The cultural interludes span overlapping years; the main events follow their historical sequence.

The spoken narration is accompanied by scene summaries rather than word-for-word subtitles. Narration was generated with ElevenLabs. You can explore each scene without sound.

Further reading: Palais des Papes, UNESCO’s Avignon listing, and Festival d’Avignon.