Rouen Hotels

City (1990 pop. 105,470), capital of Seine-Maritime dept., N France. Situated on the Seine near its mouth at the English Channel, Rouen functions as the port of Paris, handling an enormous volume of traffic. Among its many manufactures are metal products, chemicals, drugs, textiles, paper, and leather goods. Rouen is also an old commercial, administrative, and cultural center. Of pre-Roman origin, Rouen was the victim of repeated raids (9th cent.) by the Norsemen. By the 10th cent. it was the capital of Normandy and a leading European city. It was held (1419-49) in the Hundred Years War by the English. Joan of Arc was tried and burned there in 1431. From 1499 to 1789, Rouen was, with interruptions, the seat of a provincial parlement. A judicial center, it furnished many magistrates to France. Rouen has been an archiepiscopal see since the 5th cent. and is particularly rich in ecclesiastical buildings (see Gothic architecture and art). Rouen suffered severe damage in World War II; its port and much of the city had to be reconstructed. Damaged, but since restored, are the cathedral of Notre Dame (12th-15th cent.) with its famous Tour de Beurre [butter tower]; the Church of St. Maclou and the palace of justice (both 15th-16th cent.); and the Grosse Horloge, a Renaissance clock tower. The houses where Pierre Corneille and Gustave Flaubert were born are both museums. A university opened in Rouen in 1966.

History

Rouen was probably founded by the Romans who called it Rotomagus. Rouen was the chief city of the Secunda Provincia Lugdunensis under Constantine.In the 5th century it became the seat of the bishopric and later a capital of Neustria. In the 9th century, it was overrun by Normans and has been since 912 the capital of Normandy and residence of the dukes.

On April 16, 1203 Philippe Auguste entered Rouen and definitively annexed Normandy to the French Kingdom in 1204.

During the Hundred Years' War, on January 19, 1419, Rouen surrendered to Henry V of England who made Normandy a part of England. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen on May 30, 1431.

Sights

Rouen is known for its Notre Dame cathedral, with its Tour de Beurre (butter tower). The cathedral was the subject of a series of paintings by Claude Monet, some of which are exhibited in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Gros Horloge in RouenThe Gros Horloge is an astronomical clock (16th century), located in the Gros Horloge street.

Other famous structures include the Gothic Church of Saint Maclou (fifteenth-century); the Tour Jeanne d'Arc, where Joan of Arc was brought in 1431 to be threatened with torture (contrary to popular belief, she was not imprisoned there); the Church of Saint Ouen (12th-15th century); the Palais de Justice, which was once the seat of the Parlement (French court of law) of Normandy and the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics which contains a splendid collection of faïence and porcelain for which Rouen was renowned during the 16th to 18th centuries.

Rouen is noted for its surviving half-timbered buildings.

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