" Published by E.P. Dutton & Co.]
Intimately associated with the history of the palace of the Popes of
Avignon is that of the unparalleled circuit of walls and towers which
defended the city from the scourge of organized robber bands during the
fourteenth century. The earliest quadrilateral fortifications embraced a
relatively small area consisting of the Rocher des Doms and the parishes
of St. Agricol, St. Didier, and St. Pierre; these walls, demolished and
rebuilt on a more extensive scale in the twelfth century, embraced an area
easily traceable on the modern map, from the Porte du Rhone, round the
Rues du Limas, Joseph Vernet, des Lices, Philonarde, Campane, Trois
Colombes, to the Rocher.
It was these fortifications that the Cardinal St. Angelo forced the
citizens to raze in 1227. Until the acquisition of Avignon by Clement VI.,
the city was an open one and only defended by a double fosse. The origin
of the papal walls has already been traced, and their subsequent fate may
now be briefly given. The assaults of the Rhone proved more destructive
than human artillery.
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