Avignon papacy in the context of "Antipope Benedict XIII"

Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and includes the departments of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, as well as parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse. The largest city of the region and its modern-day capital is Marseille.

The Romans made the region the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Romana, which evolved into the present name. Until 1481 it was ruled by the counts of Provence from their capital in Aquae Sextiae (today Aix-en-Provence), then became a province of the kings of France. It also hosted the Avignon papacy in the middle ages, when the Pope and his Curia fled Rome. While the region has been part of France for more than 500 years, it still retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity, particularly in the interior of the region.

The walls of Avignon (French: Les Remparts d'Avignon) are a series of defensive stone walls that surround the city of Avignon in the south of France. They were built in the 14th century during the Avignon papacy and have been continually rebuilt and repaired throughout their subsequent history.

The current walls replaced an earlier double set of defensive walls that had been completed in the first two decades of the 13th century. During the Albigensian Crusade the town sided with the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VII but in 1226, after a three-month siege by Louis VIII of France, Avignon capitulated and was forced to dismantle the earlier walls and fill in the moats. Beginning in around 1231, the earlier walls were rebuilt and although they have not survived, their path is preserved in the street plan of the city.