Palais des
Papes (Palace of the Popes), is
amagnificent
edifice, one of the noblest reminders
of European
Gothic architecture, "the most
beautiful and the strongest
house in the world",
said a chronicler already six centuries ago.
This
sumptuous palace was
the centre of
Christianity in the XIVth century. It
has seen
nine popes succeed, and in the boldness of
its
architecture and the richness of its painted
decors, one
can see the remnants of this glorious
past.
the Comtat Venaissin remain properties of
the Saint-Siège, and the Palace served as
residence to legates, then to Italian vice-legates,
and was re-attached to France in 1791 during
the Revolution. Pillaged in those troubled times,
it was later used as barracks until 1906.
Today the Palace is owned
by the town of Avignon,
and it is one of the most
visited historic monuments
in France.
Exploded view of the Saint Jean tower with
a reproduction
of the frescoes on the Saint Jean
and Saint Martial chapels.
The model, which is placed in the
hall of the Consistory, has several
objectives:
-
to present Palais des Papes as a whole, including the buildings
that disappeared at the end of the XIXth century (i.e. to show
the state of the monument at the end of the XIVth century)
-
to materialise the most recent assumptions about the
reproduction
of the bodies of the building or destroyed elements
(for example
la Roma in the gardens of Benedict XII)
-
to offer a kind of interactivity to the visitors by using light desks
which make it possible to lighten certain parts of the model,
in order to understand the overall structure of the edifice better.
to show cutaway views at privileged sites (Garde-Robe tower
and Tour des Papes, Benedict XII's chapel, Grande Audience
and Clement VI's chapel) in order to make the wall paintings
and certain vertical and horizontal passage ways visible.
