Benedict XII begins Avignon's monumental building
December 1334
The new Cistercian pope, an austere man who slept on straw and despised his predecessor's extravagance, ordered construction of a fortress-palace on the rocky hilltop of Avignon. Over the next century the Palais des Papes would grow into Europe's largest Gothic palace, simultaneously cathedral, court, treasury, and prison, its massive walls declaring that the papacy intended to stay in France.
In context
Also in 1334 (4 other events on record)
- Giotto's Campanile rises beside Florence Cathedral · Europe · Culture
- Yuan dynasty floods trigger mass famine on the Yellow River · East Asia · Disaster
- Ibn Battuta visits Kilwa Kisiwani · Africa · Exploration
- Gerson's proto-nominalism at Oxford · Europe · Science
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Religion
Era
Late Middle Ages (1301–1500), one of 874 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources