Contemporary Avignon is a relatively small city with a population of about 100,000. It’s situated not too far from the French Cote d’Azur, within a convenient distance from Marseille. The earliest inhabitants of the area were Celtic tribes. It became a prominent trade centre in the times of the Roman Empire; however, soon afterwards Barbarians and Franks ravaged it and burnt it to the ground. Over the following centuries, it changed hands many times, and was annexed by various kingdoms.

To the visitors who crowd in to see it today, Avignon is primarily the famed City of the Popes. The city was a papal estate in the period between 1348 and 1791, after which it was ceded to France as a result of the French Revolution. From March 9, 1309 until January 13, 1377, Avignon served as the seat of the head of the Catholic Church instead of Rome, becoming home to seven Popes. Several decades later, during the the Great Schism in the Catholic Church, it was also the residence of the two antipopes, Clement VII and Benedict XIII.

The Popes bequeathed to Avignon one of its best known landmarks today, the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). It’s one of Europe’s largest Medieval Gothic buildings, erected between 1335 and 1364 in two phases which produced the Old Palace and the New Palace. During the French Revolution, the palace witnessed horrible massacres and was later seized by Napoleon and converted into a prison and military residence.

Paradoxically, however, this new adaptation of the luxurious residence is precisely what saved the building from further destruction. Recognised as a major national treasure, tt was turned into a state museum in 1906. In 1995, together with the St. Benezet Bridge, the Petit Palais, and the Cathedral of Notre Dames des Domes, the Palace was listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.