The Portland daily press., 1895-11-02
RESTORATION OF AVIGNON.
The Old and Magnificent Papal Pal
ace in Provence.

Story of the Change of the Holy See IRON
Rome-France's Hand in the Transac'
ton.
To those not versed in eccleslastlca
lore, and who have grown rusty ~
French history, the proposition OF the ae'
partmont of Vaucluse to remove tne
popes from Rome and to restore them te
the ancient papal palace at Avignon u
nothing less than startling. In the no'
impossible event of the holder Of 6"e
keys Of ST. Peter finding his position III
the eternal city untenable. it has been
proposed by ardent Roman Catholics &c
invite the papal court to Spain or Eng
land, or even the United States, but
in none of these could the vast treasures OF
the vatican he fittingly housed for years
while palace was building.
Avignon was forgotten. Indeed, II
was scarcely remembered that the popes
had ever lived elsewhere than in Rome,
since the conversion Of Constantine. Yet
there, in the heart of lovely Poveince, a
few miles from Vaucluse, where Amerl-
cans go by the thousands to pluck lovely
wreath from the garden of Petrarch is
vast and stately palace of the popes OF
the fourteenth century. 1t is used now
as barracks for French soldiers, and
sadly despoiled. But 1t is not ruin
| neither time nor man has marred the
magniticence of the exterior. and the in
terror is capable of restoration by the ex-
penditure of million or SO, furnished
from the vatican. To remove to this old
pile would have much more the appear
anos 4 being voluntary act than to seek
refuge in a land where the spiritual po-
tentates had never been domiciled.
The whole of Provence has a fascina-
| ton for the tourist, the charm Of land
scape and tradition. The Province of
the Roman Empire, it Is the fertile land
of the olive and vine and the precious
altar of roses On clear October morn
ing, such as this, when the vineyards are
taking on their last tints of purple and
crimson, and the yellow foliage of the
poplars along tho rolling Rhone blends
with the soft silver green of olive and
willow, the whole land SINNERS with
charming color.
1t was little later in tho year, Nov.
4, 1909 when the first of the Avignon
popes, Clement ", entered the town over
St. Benzenet bridge, a solid structure OF
stone arches that SPAWNED the broad,
brown river. Three arches are still stand
ing, and one of the buttresses support a
chapel. The town must have looked
much as it does today. 1t still preserves
it's medieval character beneath cracked
and warped modernism that overlays it,.
| It forms cobweb of narrow, gloomy.
winding lanes, walled in and overshad-
owed by stone houses, "huge and tiled
and tall, y and filed with dim inches and
recesses and angles, recalling at first
glance the open-air catacombs which pass
for streets in northern Italy.
| But the old town assumes different
aspect once you pass through the river
gate, climb a broad winding stair lead
ing to the massive Roman ramparts that
! front the Rhone, and look down upon
| UQ6 S6rrl0u Thuh6 VI IOIlo cAl0 uAAO WtNO
undulating champaign, over the trim,
modern iron balustrade of the public gar
den, perched like the gardens of Babylon,
on the wall. just below you, casting a
grim shadow over the smooth water, is
the ruined bridge. jutting out from the
bank. Above vestands the round hill,
the acropolis of Avignon, and across the
stream is the fortress Of Villeneuve, like a
castle of romance, with it's round towers,
with portfolios fronting the gates, re-
ntinding the tourist that for nearly 100
years the popes were prevented by French
kings from returning to Rome.
And now the roll of a drum breaks on
the air, and from stone fort on the
acropolis pours stream of TINY figures
in blue with glittering bnyonets. On the
other side of the garden zigzag road
leads to an open space where few com-
panies of dapper French grenadiers are
going through parade. Above them
frown the walls of the most enduring
monument of the fourteenth century in
France.
All along one side of the parade ground
rises a vast, gloomy building Of dark gray
stone, wearying the eye with the pro-
fusion of Gothic arches, massive towers,
battlements, buttresses, turrets, carved
gateways and inches WITHOUT end. There
are narrow Sits for windows and rough
iron gratings, for the place is used as
military prison as well as barracks.
1t stretches for mile in any direction
and vast areas are empty or filled with
army Ste ros or refuse. In majesty and air
of permanence it rivals the Roman thea
tire at Orange-yet it served the use for
which it was built scarce a hundred years
The titanic palace dwarfs and dominates
tho town; and without the gates Villen-
euve stands guard like the Castle OF san
Angelo frownirg on the fair dome OF st.
Peters. The pope resident in Avignon
was glad to take refuge in the kings fort
little as he liked the kings favor, when
Bertrand de Guesclin, freebooter, after
ward constable of France, appeared at