Palace of the Popes, Avignon, France / The Great Audience

The Great Audience has almost the same surface area as the Great Chapel above the Great Audience, but it is not as high; the Great Audience was the seat of the...
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The Great Audience has almost the same surface area as the Great Chapel above the Great Audience, but it is not as high; the Great Audience was the seat of the Apostolic Court of Audience. This permanent judicial body, whose functioning was defined by the first Avignon popes, is the supreme court of Christendom. Here, its college of highly qualified auditors heard all the appeal cases submitted by the Pope. The court was at the east end of the hall, beneath the vault decorated with the Prophets Fresco.
The auditors sat in a wheel-shaped enclosure, the Rota, hence the name of this tribunal from 1336. They were assisted by men of law and litigants, seated on benches all around. Manu of the remnants of its rich painted and sculpted decor highlight the infallibility of Devine Justice and its decisions. The Tribunal Apostolicum Rotae Romanae, created by the Avignon papacy, was reformed many times down the centuries and is still the Holy See's appeal court.
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