Châteauneuf-du-Pape (French pronunciation: [ʃɑtonœf dy pap] ⓘ; Provençal: Castèu-Nòu-de-Papa) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France.

None of the subsequent Avignon popes stayed in Châteauneuf but after the schism of 1378 the antipope Clement VII sought the security of the castle.

With the departure of the popes the castle passed to the archbishop of Avignon, but it was too large and too expensive to maintain and was used as a source of stone for building work in the village.

This Romanesque chapel was erected by the monks of the abbey of Saint-Théodoric in Avignon at the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century and is the oldest building in the commune.

[8] In the second half of the 11th century a fortified village was built higher up the hill by the Viscount Rostaing Béranger in the fiefdom of his brother, the bishop of Avignon.

The wall of the present church building formed part of the fortification and the arrowslits in the clock tower are still visible.

[9] The new village would have contained a suitable fortified residence for the bishop which is believed to have been located between the church and the site of the later castle.

[11] Bertrand de Got, archbishop of Bordeaux, was elected pope in 1305, and took the name of Clement V. He transferred the papacy to Avignon from Rome in 1309.

John XXII initiated a large number of building projects, including additions to the Palais des Papes in Avignon as well as defensive castles at Barbentane, Bédarrides, Noves and Sorgues.

[14] There is no record of the next Avignon pope, Benedict XII (1334–1342) having ever stayed in this castle, but in 1335 he granted the village the right to have a ship mill on the Rhône, a market every Tuesday and two fairs during the year.

[15] None of the following four popes stayed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape either, but after the schism of the Catholic Church in 1378, the Avignon antipope Clement VII frequently sought the security of the castle and from 1385 to 1387 had improvements carried out on the building.

[18] In 1317, one year after his election, Pope John XXII ordered the construction of a castle at the top of the hill above the village.

[21] With the departure of the popes the castle became part of the fief of the bishop and, after 1475, the archbishop of Avignon, but it was much too big and expensive for them to maintain.

[23][a] The captain in charge of the village's defences lived in the castle but there was no permanent garrison, and most of the buildings were allowed to deteriorate.

In March 1563, they pillaged the village and set fire to the church and parts of the castle including the apartments of the pope.

The buildings and the adjoining parkland were put up for sale and bought in July 1797 by Jean-Baptiste Establet, a farmer in the village.

The earliest depiction is an anonymous drawing from the Album Laincel in the collection of the Musée Calvet in Avignon that dates from the second half of the 17th century.

[34] The two large ruined walls to the west of the donjon formed part of a rectangular building reserved for the pope and his close associates.

[35] An archaeological excavation carried out in 1960 in the basement of the ruined rectangular building recovered a number of small glazed terracotta floor tiles.

[36][37] The tiles are similar to those discovered in 1963 on the floor of Pope Benedict XII's studium in the Palais des Papes.

It certainly existed in 1155 when a papal bull issued by Adrian IV confirmed that bishop of Avignon possessed "Châteauneuf Calcernier with its churches".

To build the northern aisle, the commune bought land and a house on the other side of the Rue Ancienne Ville and displaced the street to the north.

[47] The ruined castle of Lhers[c] sits on a limestone outcrop, 3.2 km (2.0 mi) west of the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape on the left bank of the Rhône.

It is mentioned (as Leris) for the first time in a document dated 913 in which Louis the Blind, Count of Provence, gave the castle, one (or two) churches, a port on the Rhône and the land of the parish, to Fouquier,[e] the bishop of Avignon.

[53] The Rhône was liable to violent floods and the river would change position or bifurcate, creating and destroying islands.

The number and the position of the islands varied over the centuries which led to a series of boundary disputes between the communities of Lhers and Châteauneuf.

It is mentioned in a papal bull issued in 1138 by Pope Adrian IV that confirmed that the bishop of Avignon possessed the fief of Lhers.

The Introitus et Exitus, the financial record of the Papal Treasury, shows regular purchases of small quantities of wine from the village.

From the correspondence of the Tulle family who owned the vineyards of the La Nerthe estate, we learn that the 40 hectolitres of wine produced was exported to England, Italy, Germany and all over France.

[61] Unlike its northern Rhône neighbours, Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC permits thirteen different varieties of grape in red wine but the blend must be predominantly grenache.