Designated a Monument Historique for the first time in 1862,[1] it is notably the only archiepiscopal palace in France that is adjoining a cathedral while retaining its original function as official residence of the archbishop.

[2] It is believed the archbishop's residence was moved to the northeast side of the cathedral when Norman invaders raided and plundered the region, and the Duchy of Normandy was created.

[2] Standing between the choir and the rue Saint Romain, the building was extended to the east, and came close to the moats of the former ramparts dating from the fourth century AD.

Of this building only subsists a basement room and the foundations of the walls between the portail des Libraires (Gate of the Librarians) and the tower at the angle of the rue Saint Romain, towards the courtyard of the Maîtrise Saint-Évode.

[2] As his predecessor, he demolished the archbishop's private apartments to clear up space for the current building, which houses the cour d'Église (Court of Church).

He doubled the size of the episcopal residence by building a corps de logis on the same scale and erecting a second winding staircase that parallels the other constructed by Estouteville.

[8] He replaced the gallery between the palace and the pavillon Saint-Romain by an ensemble of buildings known as the bibliothèque (library),[7] to offer room for the collection of books he purchased from Pierre-Jules-César de Rochechouart, bishop of Évreux, in 1738.

In 1742, the grand entrance to the main courtyard was designed by Le Carpentier, replacing the former gate built early in the 14th century.

Cardinal Dominique de La Rochefoucauld continued the renovation of the Salle des États by commissioning Hubert Robert four large mural paintings.

Under the Churches and State Separation Act 1905, the Archbishop Frédéric Fuzet was forced to leave the palace the next year.