Place du Palais
The grand open square at the heart of papal Avignon, framed by the Palais des Papes, the cathedral, the former bishops' Petit Palais and the Baroque facade of the old papal mint. Once crowded with medieval houses, it was cleared in the early fifteenth century to open up the approach to the popes' fortress.
Sobre este lugar
Place du Palais is the ceremonial forecourt of the Palais des Papes and the finest public space in Avignon. For most of the Middle Ages the ground was buried under houses and tangled lanes pressed hard against the palace walls, until Pope Benedict XIII had them demolished around 1404 to clear open ground before an anticipated siege; the rubble then lay scattered across the square until 1603. Today the sloping, sunlit space is framed by four powers that once ruled the city: the towering papal palace, the Romanesque cathedral of Notre-Dame des Doms, the Petit Palais that housed the bishops and the earliest Avignon popes, and the ornate Baroque Hotel des Monnaies, the old papal mint of 1619. In the spring of 1794 this same ground became the stage for the guillotine during the Revolutionary Terror, a grim chapter that sits strangely beneath its present role as a gathering place and a main venue of Avignon's celebrated summer theatre festival.
Datos clave
- 1404 year — Pope Benedict XIII cleared the medieval houses to open up the square
- 1619 year — The Baroque Hotel des Monnaies, the old papal mint, was built facing the palace
- 4 monuments — Grand buildings frame the square: the palace, cathedral, Petit Palais and mint
📍 Montée Jean XXIII, 84000, Avignon