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Show PALACE f 4I $ v i ' Pi I hi 1? I rj - I 1 KKV- ' LAP '7fVt i'" ( Lv 4 s ss : - - ' : j Western Facade of the Palace. IT IS more than 20 years since I first saw that mighty Palace of the Popes at Avignon which Froissart called "the finest and strongest house In the world ;" and the most important im-portant occurrence in that period, from the point of view of the architect and the historian, is that in 1907 the huge building was at last relieved from its dangerous task of sheltering soldiers, sol-diers, who cared as little for its beauty as for its associations, writes Theodore Andrea Cook in Country Life. It was, ' perhaps, better to be the barracks of a regiment than to be a prison like Tar-ascon, Tar-ascon, or a disintegrating ruin like Beaucaire. But none of these three glorious relics of Provencal history deserved de-served so ignominious a fate, and the department of historic monuments earned the thanks of every scholar by its change of policy toward these splendid castles of the storied Rhone. One invaluable result of clearing the Talace of Avignon has been that foi the first time it is possible to compare the actual constructions of this extraordinary ex-traordinary building with the records preserved in the Vatican and investigated investi-gated by Eugene Muntz, Maurice Fau-con Fau-con and F. Ehrle. This comparison was carried on by Felix Digonnet, the learned guardian of the museum at Avignon, and when again the continent is free ground for the curious traveler I hope that visitors will be able not only to see the whole of the palace, but to understand the original intention inten-tion of its builders, and to realize the skill and care with which all the ancient an-cient masonry is being preserved or reproduced after the century of defacement de-facement and npclect which followed furniture, which he is wholly disap. peared. Nothing but the solidity and imposing strength of its exterior walla remain to hint at what Froissart so much admired. The old pontifical chapel of John XXII, enlarged by Benedict XII and since restored, is now the repository reposi-tory of the archives of the province, and forms the extreme northern line of buildings between the Tour de Trouillas at the northeastern corner and the Tour de la Campane at the northwest. Benedict's work was built above the older structure, originally the parish church of St. Stephen, by Pierre Poisson of Mirepoix in 1335. For some time it was turned to the base uses of a common gaol, and it was Itevoil who designed its present barrel-vault at a height from the ground which is equivalent to that of. the two original buildings one above the other. Their frescoes by Pierre du Puy have all disappeared ; but we know that his workmen were paid four shillings a day of our money, while he had nearly 20; and that their colors were white, green, sky blue, indigo blue, vermilion, saffron, and so forth, laid on with white of egg, with olive oil and linseed oil, and garnished with fine gold. In 1336 Benedict XII finished the tiling of the floors, and some remains re-mains of them are preserved in the Musee Calvet in the town. This chapel was not used for more than 30 years, and was gravely damaged by fire in 1392. Its place was taken by the fai more splendid building of Clement VI on the south side of the main courtyard. the most deliberate vandalism of the Revolution. Color and Massiveness. The vast and. deserted esplanade in front of this giant block of masonry is a fitting framework to so massive a memorial of dead majesty, and the whole atmosphere of the scene is as different as possible from anything you have passed on your way through the modern town from the railway station of the republic. The exquisite color of the pale gold masonry "teinte uniforme de feuille seche," said Henri Beyle is one of the loveliest attributes of, the buildings of Provence, as it is of our own Dorsetshire houses; but it is the titanic strength and elemental pride of this enormous building which first impress themselves on the beholder be-holder who stands before its ruined western entrance gate. The huge and bony carcass of somoe creature of the prime, fossilized In bygone ages of the world, and couchant still within its ancient lair, seems brooding like some monstrous menace over the Valley of the Rhone. Ruined and mutilated, as it is, of all its former splendor, this cliff of cut stone stands stupendous above the petty highways of our smaller small-er life. The octagonal turret jutting from the tower immediately on your left of the main entrance preserves, in Its name of "The White Cardinal." the memory of that humbly born Cistercian Cister-cian monk who, in December, 1335, assumed as-sumed the title of Benedict XII, and really began the foundation of the palace as we see it. Two-thirds of the whole, at any rate, he planned; and his is the portion that Is the simplest sim-plest and strongest of it all. No marble was used anywhere in the palace, which was wholly of French workmanship and Provencal design, with the square towers which mainly differentiate that school from the round-towered style of the French kings which Is so massively exhibited In the contemporary . Fort St. Andre Just across the river. The deeply carved machicolations, still to be seen here and there and originally placed on every tower and wall, had only just been introduced by the end of the fourteenth century. Those on the great facade are the largest in the world, sometimes two yards in length by 18 inches deep, sufficient to hurl down timbers that could sweep a dozen storming ladders off the wall or crush a whole company of sappers. The only luxury observable In the j Wilace was to be found in Its interior Returning to the courtyard we find in the Tour des Anges, at the angle of the eastern wall, one of the best preserved pre-served of all Benedict's buildings. I was originally entered from the in terior of the palace only, and the steep slope of the rock outside enabled the architect to build two more stories there than are visible from the courtyard. court-yard. It forms a building 46 meters high on the plan of a perfect square, with a strong buttress pillar at each angle and walls more than ten feet thick and nearly 60 feet long. Its cellars contained the pope's private stock of wine. Above the wine cellar was the lower treasury, with its four-pointed four-pointed vaults resting on a central pillar without base or capital, all strongly guarded by huge locks and ironbouud doors. Immediately above this was Benedict Bene-dict XII's bedroom, which was used by Clement VII in 1379, and called the "Chamber of the Flying Stag," from one of the many frescoes still discoverable discover-able beneath multitudinous layers of military whitewash. Two windows with stone seats in their embrasures look out over the entrance court, and by a third you see across the valley of the Rhone to the blue shadows of the distant Alps. Several of the secret stairways, carved in the thickness of the walls, by which the Pope reached various parts of his palace, can still be clearly traced. Above his holiness was a library filled with precious manuscripts, and higher still Is a larger apartment from which soldiers could defend the whole tower against attack, called the chatelet. This tower, tow-er, the work of Pierre Poisson, may be taken as typical of the rest, and was two years in the building from April 23, 1335. The roof was paid for on March 18, 1337. On the left of the spectator, and continuing the east wing of the courtyard court-yard toward the north, are the other private apartments of the Tope, designed de-signed by Bernard Canelle of Nar-bonne. Nar-bonne. The appalling reconstructions necessitated by the barracks have almost al-most entirely destroyed the original conception, but the minute details recorded re-corded in the Vatican are more than sufficient to replace Candle's design in good time. This comprised the Pope's private kitchen and wardrobe, his dining room, his study and his oratory. ora-tory. Behind it, and in the angle of the Tour des Anges, is the little Tour des Etuves, where his holiness took his btth, abC7e the chamberlain's coun cil rc:-;u. |