1-629-831 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Papal Palace, Avignon, France, 1937. In 1309 Pope Clement V chose Avignon as his residence, and the city remained the seat of the papacy until 1377. The building of the Gothic Papal Palace, situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the River Rhone, was begun in 1335 during the papacy of Benedict XII and completed in 1364. After the papacy returned to Rome the building remained papal property but gradually fell into disrepair. It was sacked during the French Revolution and in the Napoleonic period was used as a barracks and prison. The palace became a museum in 1906, since when the building has undergone extensive restoration. Illustration from Frankreich: Baukunst, Landschaft Und Volksleben, a work on French architecture, landscape and people by Martin Hürlimann, (Berlin, 1937).