In 1995, the Palais des Papes was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its outstanding architecture and historical importance for the papacy.

In addition, the papal library housed in the Palais (the largest in Europe at the time with over 2,000 volumes), attracted a group of clerics passionate in the study of "belles-lettres", amongst them the founder of humanism, Petrarch.

The hope of reuniting Latin and Orthodox Christians, along with the achievement of peace in the Papal States in Italy, made the case for returning stronger.

Despite strong opposition from the Court of France and the College of Cardinals, both popes found the means to return to Rome, the first, on 30 April 1362, the second on 13 September 1370.

It retained, however, a "work of destruction" aspect that French poets and writers such as Charles Forbes René de Montalembert have referred to over the centuries, with its powerful sense of beauty, simplicity, grandeur and immortality.

The austere Benedict had the original episcopal palace razed and replaced with a much larger building centred on a cloister, heavily fortified against attackers.

Although the Palais remained under papal control (along with the surrounding city and Comtat Venaissin) for over 350 years afterward, it gradually deteriorated despite a restoration in 1516.

Although it was further damaged by the military occupation, especially under the anti-clerical Third Republic when the remaining interior woodwork was cleared away for use of the structure as a stables – the frescos were covered over and largely destroyed – this ensured the shell of the building's physical survival.

[8] The courtyard of the Palais des Papes is a central performance location during the Festival d'Avignon, which is held every year in July.

With 15,000 square metres (160,000 sq ft) of floor space, the Palais is the largest Gothic palace in all of Europe[10] and, due to its many architectural merits, one of the most important in the world.

These merits were highlighted by Viollet-le-Duc, author of "Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle" (Dictionary of French architecture from the 11th to the 16th century), who referred extensively to the Palais, including the thickness and height of its towers, the strength of its crenelated walls, the use of arches for support on its façades and its ability to withstand heavy and drawn-out sieges.

The studium, or private study of Clement VI, is commonly called the chambre du cerf (room of the stag), on account of the celebrated 14th-century frescoes, depicting courtly hunting scenes, that decorate the walls and vaults.

The frescoes were probably painted by French artists, who were either highly influenced by Sienese art or assisted by Simone Martini and/or Matteo Giovanetti, both of whom served as Clement's court painter.

Located on the second level of the Saint-Jean tower, the Saint-Martial chapel relates through painting the main parts of Saint Martial's life.

In this chapel painted by Matteo Giovannetti complex architecture in "perspective construction and developed fictitious rooms and places that are more illusionistic than any pictures before them" according to Dieter Blume an art historian and professor at the university of jena.

The tradition began in 1947, when the art critic Christian Zervos and the poet René Char organised an exhibition of the likes of Matisse, Picasso, Braque and Mondrian.