Avignon · FR
Avignon City Highlights
Popes, a famous bridge and medieval lanes inside the ramparts
What's the walk about?
Welcome to Avignon, the great walled City of Popes rising on the banks of the Rhone in the heart of Provence. For a few dazzling decades in the fourteenth century, this was the capital of the Christian world, and that golden age still echoes through its ramparts, its squares and its sun warmed lanes. On this gentle loop through the old city you will meet the legendary broken bridge, climb to a garden terrace with sweeping river views, and stand beneath the largest Gothic palace in Europe, with a lively covered market and a dreamy canal of old waterwheels waiting along the way. Comfortable shoes, a little curiosity, and you are ready to begin.
What you'll see
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1
Pont Saint-Bénézet
Bridge
The four surviving arches of the legendary Pont d'Avignon reach out into the Rhône and stop in mid river, the famous bridge of the nursery rhyme that once linked the city to the far bank.
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2
Musée du Petit Palais
Museum
A former archbishops' palace at the north end of Place du Palais, now home to a dazzling collection of Italian medieval and early Renaissance painting.
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3
Rocher des Doms
Viewpoint
The rocky spur where Avignon was born, now a landscaped hilltop garden with sweeping views over the Rhône, the broken bridge and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.
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4
Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms
Cathedral
A solid Romanesque cathedral crowned by a huge gilded statue of the Virgin, standing shoulder to shoulder with the papal palace.
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5
Place du Palais
Square
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.
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6
Palais des Papes
Palace
The largest Gothic palace in Europe and the fortified seat of the fourteenth century Avignon papacy, when a line of French popes ruled Western Christendom from this riverbank rather than Rome. Its halls, chapels and frescoed chambers sprawl across some 15,000 square metres of pale stone.
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7
Église Saint-Pierre
Church
A jewel of Flamboyant Gothic architecture tucked away on its own small square, celebrated above all for the magnificent walnut doors carved in the Renaissance. A church has stood on this spot since the early Middle Ages.
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8
Place de l'Horloge
Square
The lively heart of Avignon, a broad cafe-lined square overlooked by the Hotel de Ville with its medieval clock tower and the columned front of the opera.
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9
Les Halles d'Avignon
Market
Avignon's covered food market on Place Pie, its grey facade softened by a tall living wall of greenery and its aisles packed with Provencal produce.
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10
Rue des Teinturiers
Street
A cobbled, plane-shaded lane following the open Sorgue canal, where old mossy waterwheels recall Avignon's centuries of fabric dyeing.
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