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Origin and history

La Livrée de la Thurroye, also known as the Palace of Cardinal de Deaux, is a medieval building located in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, in the Gard department. This building, surrounded by a fortified enclosure, was built between 1338 and 1348 under the impulse of Cardinal Bertrand de Deaux. It adopts an orthogonal quadrilateral plan, a rarity for regional Gothic architecture, and organizes around a central courtyard accessible by wooden galleries. Originally, the palace was isolated, surrounded by a garden, and opened through doors and windows today partly walled.

Between 1356 and 1361, Cardinal Guy de Boulogne, the new owner, added a large reception room (or hall), called the Turin Hall, against the south wing. 30 meters long, this walled room replaces the original staircase and introduces a reception lodge open on the courtyard with three arches in third-point. After the death of Guy de Boulogne in 1373, the palace passed to the Counts of Auvergne, then was rented in the 15th century to Cardinal Pierre de Thury. From that time on, the building began to be fragmented among various owners.

In the 16th century, the livery was divided into a dozen properties occupied by peasants, artisans, or judicial officers. The family of Roux, the holder of the viguier charge, owns from the 15th century a northern part of the palace, later called Hotel de Roux. In the 17th century, the Calvet family acquired and transformed the southern part: in 1657, Antoine Calvet, a jurisconsult, bought the ruins of the Turin Hall and entrusted the architects Royers de la Valfenière with the construction of a hotel, often mistakenly confused with the Hôtel du Prince de Conti.

The Grey Penitents summarily settled in the west wing in the early seventeenth century, and their chapel was built in 1758 by Jean-Baptiste Franque. Despite partial rankings at historical monuments (1989 for the hotel and garden floor, 2003 for the old palace, and 2025 for the north wing), some of the buildings, poorly maintained, fell into ruins. Today, the site mixes medieval remains, Renaissance transformations, and religious elements, illustrating almost seven centuries of architectural and social history.

Recent excavations and studies, including those of Hervé Aliquot or Bernard Sournia, have partially restored the original plan of the palace. It was distinguished by its geometric regularity and isolation, characteristic of the Avignonese cardinalcies. The preserved remains, such as arches in third-point or traces of wooden galleries, offer a rare testimony of urban planning and the way of life of the prelates in the 14th century, during the period of the Great Schism of the West.

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