Avignon France

Avignon is a city of southeast France on the left bank of the Rhône River, with a current population slightly surpassing 93,000. It is predominantly agricultural with a great wine trade and other produce.

It was founded by the Gallic tribe of Cavares and later fell under the Roman rule. Avignon fared very well under the Roman reign and it became the most flourishing cities of Gallia Narbonensis and the first transalpine province of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, very little but a few fragments of the forum near Rue Molière remain from this period today.

Through the centuries, Avignon was much fought over, vanquished, captured and destroyed by many. Its status of eminence grew tremendously as the capital of the papacy during the Babylonian captivity between 1309 and 1378 and as the seat of the Avignonese popes during the Western Schism between 1378 and 1417. The city became an archiepiscopal see in 1475. The poet Petrarch condemned and blamed the city’s corruption on the occupying papacy and strongly influenced their return to Rome most probably due to sheer embarrassment as much as anything else. After the bloody French revolution and an election in 1791 Avignon was annexed and incorporated into France. 

Avignon is regarded as one of the loveliest cities in France therefore it attracts a variety of artistic types and hosts an annual theater festival. It occupies a large oval-shaped area that is not fully populated but covered in great part by parks and gardens which add to its overall beauty.
Avignon was designated a World Heritage site in 1995 and some of the highlights of this picturesque city are listed below:

- Notre Dame Des Doms, the cathedral, is a Romanesque building from the twelfth century and brandishes a gilded statue of the Virgin which surmounts the western tower. The most impressive of the many works of art within is the mausoleum of Pope John XXII, a masterpiece of Gothic carving of the fourteenth century.

- The Palais des Papes, the Gothic style palace of the popes, is an impressive monument on a square of the same name. Begun in 1316 by John XXII and continued by succeeding popes until 1370 its walls are 17 to 18 feet thick out of natural rock on top of a hill to serve as a residence, a fortress, and a church. And it is surrounded by a mote.

- Among the many churches of the town are St Pierre which has a graceful facade and richly carved doors, St Didier and St Agricol. All three are of Gothic architecture.

- Hôtel de Ville, city hall, is a modern building with a belfry of the fourteenth century.

- Hôtel des Monnaies, the papal mint, was built in 1610 and became a music-school.

- Avignon is still encircled by the ramparts built by its popes in the 14th century and serve as one of the finest examples of medieval fortification in existence today. These mighty walls are fortified by thirty-nine massive towers.

- A bridge crossed the Rhône to Villeneuve-les-Avignon, and a little higher up, a picturesque ruined bridge of the 12th century, the Pont Saint-Bénézet that projects into the river. The Pont Saint-Bénézet  was made famous by the popular French song “sur le pont d’Avignon.”

- The Calvet Museum, the Musée Carnavalet, Musée Angladon, Musée lapidaire, Musée Louis-Vouland, Musée Requien

- Palais du Roure
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but Avignon is beheld by all.

Posted in France Vacation Guide