 The ramparts were strengthened in 1544, but this did not stop the Huguenots from devastating the abbey's archives, church and part of its cloister and the ramparts were later destroyed after 1777 to link the area with a new district built on land reclaimed from the river.Palud also built an abbatial palace which hosted several kings of France during the 16th century, when the French royal court was still itinerant rather than having a permanent base in Versailles or Paris.In 1536 the court set up home in Lyon, whilst Francis I of France was gathering his troops to the south-east of Avignon to face Charles V's invasion of Provence.