The Papal Palace at Avignon
The Palais des Papes at Avignon, built in two campaigns between 1335 and 1352. Benedict XII raised the austere older wing; Clement VI, elected in 1342, added the palace on the left and paid for the decoration that gave the papal court its reputation for splendour.
The conclave of 1342 met inside a building that was still going up, in a city the papacy had occupied for a generation and would hold for another seventy years. It elected Pierre Roger, a Limousin cardinal and a former chancellor of France, who took the name Clement VI, bought the town of Avignon outright from the queen of Naples and spent on a scale that made his predecessor's austerity look like an aberration. The choice was quick; what it revealed about French influence over the college was not quickly undone. See the 1342 Avignon conclave and the election of Clement VI.
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