Benedict XII begins the Palais des Papes at Avignon

1337

The Cistercian pope ordered the old episcopal palace torn down and replaced with the largest Gothic palace in Christendom, a fortress-monastery looming over the Rhone. Its twelve-foot walls and crenellated towers told the world that the papacy was staying in France. The building itself was a political argument rendered in limestone, defying Italian demands for the curia's return.