The courts, parliaments, and tribunals of the executive were held in the palace of the suzerain or the bishop, where certain of the buildings were open to the public. The important feature, the great hall (grand salle), occupied a vast covered space in which the plenary courts were held, the vassals assembled, and banquets were given. It communicated with galleries or ambulatories. A chapel was always included in the plan of the palace, which consisted of the lodging of the lord and his followers; offices, often of great extent; rooms for the storing of archives; magazines, prisons, and innumerable auxiliary buildings, divided by courtyards, and in some cases by gardens.
231. CLOTH HALL AT PERPIGNAN, KNOWN AS LA LOGE
In Paris the palace proper, which was in the Île de la Cité, consisted of buildings constructed from the time of St. Louis to the reign of Philip the Fair. From the reign of Charles V. it was specially devoted to the administration of justice.
The only remains of the buildings of St. Louis are the Ste. Chapelle, the two great towers with their intervening curtain on the Quai de l'Horloge, and the square clock tower at the angle of the quay.
The best examples of seignorial castles are: Troyes, which was built by the Counts of Champagne, and inhabited by them till they removed to Provins in the thirteenth century; and the palace of the Counts of Poitiers at Poitiers, one of the most interesting of such buildings; it was burnt by the English in 1346, and repaired or rebuilt at the close of the fourteenth century by the brother of Charles V., Jean, Duke of Berry, to whom we owe, among other architectural works, the curious fireplace of the great vestibule, called the Salle des Pas Perdus, in the Palais de Justice.
232. BISHOP'S PALACE AT LAON