This system was also adopted at Narbonne. At the close of the thirteenth and during the fourteenth century the palace was transformed into a fortress, the importance of which bore witness to the power of its bishops. After Avignon, it is perhaps the most imposing of episcopal dwellings.
From this time onward the bishops' palaces increased greatly in size, their dimensions extending proportionately with those of the great cathedrals of the period. The importance of the episcopal buildings and their dependencies was on a par with the wealth and power of their owners. Some idea of their magnificence may be gathered from the private chapel of the archbishop at Rheims, which dates from the middle of the thirteenth century.
235. PALACE OF THE POPES AT AVIGNON. PLAN
The archbishop's palace at Albi has all the character of a feudal castle. Its buildings are protected by a keep, and encircled by walls and towers connected both with the ramparts of the city, and with that more important fortalice, the cathedral itself, the tower of which is, in fact, a formidable keep.[76]
[76] See Part I., Cathedral of Albi, Figs. 70-73.
The transformation of church and palace into fortresses by an elaborate system of defence was necessitated by the wars which ravaged the district, and from which Albi suffered more cruelly than any other town.
The palace of the popes at Avignon which Pope Benedict XII. began to build in the fourteenth century, and the bishop's palace at Narbonne, are among the finest specimens of ecclesiastical fortification in the Middle Ages.[77]
[77] For the Palace of the Popes, see Albert Lenoir and Viollet-le-Duc.