Provence and Avignon are inseparable. The impressive buildings and treasures of the former papal residence - now a UNESCO world heritage site - and the famous festival of theatre are the greatest attractions of the town on the lower Rhone. During the Babylonian captivity of the Church between 1309 and 1376, Avignon - to avoid factional fighting in Rome - became home to the popes and, in the ensuing Great Schism up until 1403, the antipopes. Throughout the entire era, the town was a thriving centre of culture, as well as a swamp of vice and luxury, a cloaca, or sewer, as Petrarch described it, in which the filth of all the universe has gathered. The important Avignon School of painting derived from the Italian artists engaged by the popes, Simone Martini from Siena in particular. The town and Comtat Venaissin remained in the hands of the Curia in Rome until the French Revolution in 1792, when it was united with France. Busy throughout the summer months, the capital of the Vaucluse departement is inundated with visitors during the July festival.
