Avignon is another French town steeped in history. We tend to remember Avignon by association with a 15th century song about dancing on its 12th century bridge...
Sur le pont d'Avignon,
L'on y danse, l'on y danse.
Sur le pont d'Avignon,
L'on y danse tout en rond.
For those of you needing a translation into English to gain the profound wisdom of these words, the song says,
On the bridge of Avignon,
We all dance there, we all dance there.
On the bridge of Avignon,
We all dance there in a ring.
Historians have tried to find significance in a song so popular for the last 500 years... it is supposed to have been a 'pillow song' sung to brides on their wedding night... makes no sense to me.
I think the most interesting period of Avignon was the papal period. In 1300, King Phillip of France was throwing tantrums with military action inside Rome. When Pope Clement V became Pope, he organised with Phillip to move the Papal seat to Avignon... where conditions were more settled. He built a papal palace... but didn't rely solely on heavenly intervention to keep him safe... his palace had walls that were 12-foot thick... best to be on the safe side. He also built a splendid wall with parapets around the city. (This wall has been maintained... today, a great tourist attraction.)
In 1348, ships carrying the Black Death plague turned up in Genoa... and sensibly were refused entry. The ship continued to Marseilles... before being given the heave-ho... from whence they sailed to Spain. Each of these ports thought they were doing the right thing... but the plague spread freely in each of them... their populations suffered terribly... but by moving the ship on, the plague spread to another port. In a matter of weeks, the Black Death spread upstream from Marseilles to Avignon. Pope Clement VI watched with growing alarm as he saw two-thirds of Avignon's population succumb to the plague. He holed up within his palace... and decided his best action was to let God's will sort out the fate of the people... but to protect himself from evil vapours he sat between two roaring fires for the winter... rats and lice didn't like the heat... and with God's good grace... he survived the terrible winter.
In total, 6 Popes reigned from the Avignon papal seat.
In closing, let's go to another period of Avignon history in 875...the events were not so unusual... frequent occurrences of parricide... betrayal... torture... the usual thing for the medieval period. What seems delightful (in an otherwise despondent period) was the names of the lead characters. These names have not been made up.
In 787, Boso (not the clown) was proclaimed Burgundian King of Provence, at the death of Louis the Stammerer (879)... but the Stammerer family regained the crown when Louis' young Charles the Simple stepped up to the plate. Pope Innocent had influence on Avignon developments... there have been 13 popes who have used 'Innocent' in their name .. but, interestingly, none has used the name of 'Pope Guilty'.
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