The interior of Notre Dame des Doms is an example of an early Provençal church, but not a very favourable one, as it has been frequently altered and added to. The choir is of 1671, and the lateral chapels are of the fourteenth century, while Renaissance balconies in marble have been added in front of the gallery, over the side aisles. In the choir is a remarkable chair of the twelfth century, in white marble, which was the seat of the Pope; and the tomb of John XXII. (Fig. 48), in one of the side chapels, is a fine specimen of the imported Northern Gothic style. The tower, partly destroyed in the fifteenth century, was repaired in 1430; and the colossal statue of the Virgin was added in 1859. The walls of the interior were once decorated with frescoes by Simone Memmi, but they are now almost obliterated; and the interior is so dark, that the few fragments remaining cannot be seen. [Illustration: FIG. 48. MONUMENT OF POPE JOHN XXII.] Originally the church consisted of a single nave, without aisles, vaulted with a pointed barrel-vault, strengthened with transverse ribs and internal buttresses, being, as above explained, one of the arrangements common in Provence. The east end terminated with an apse, the bay in front of which is vaulted in a remarkable manner. A dome is frequently introduced in this position; but in the present instance, owing to the width of the bay being small compared to the width of the church, a square space on which to raise the dome could not readily be obtained. To [Illustration: FIG. 49. PLAN OF THE PALACE OF THE POPES, AVIGNON, from Viollet-le-Duc’s _Dictionnaire_.] accomplish this, successive arches are thrown across between the transverse ribs, rising with the curve of the latter and advancing over one another, till the central space becomes a square, on which a lantern, with eight Roman-looking columns, is raised and supports an octagonal dome above. In the twelfth century the rock, on the summit of which stands the Church of Notre Dame des Doms, was covered with habitations and gardens, which were dominated by the ancient castles of the Podestà and the Bishop. Pope Clement V., on his first arrival at Avignon, occupied the Convent of the Dominicans; and John XXII., in 1316, lived in the building which existed in his day where the Pope’s Palace now stands. In 1336 Benedict XII. demolished what his predecessors had erected, and rebuilt the northern part of the existing Palace (Plan, Fig. 49--from Viollet-le-Duc’s _Dictionnaire_), being the side next the Cathedral, on a grand scale, from plans by the architect Pierre Obreri. His works terminated at the “Tour de Trouillas,” or the great donjon (B) at the N.-E. angle, and is marked by another immense tower (B) at the west end of the range, called the “Tour de la Gache.”