Rouen

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Administration
Commune of Rouen
Location

Coordinates	49°26′38″N, 1°6′12″E
Country	France
Region	Haute-Normandie (capital)
Department	Seine-Maritime (préfecture)
Arrondissement	Rouen
Canton	Chief town of 7 cantons
Intercommunality	Agglomération de Rouen
Mayor	Pierre Albertini (2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	2 m–152 m (avg. 10 m)
Land area¹	21.38 km²
Population² (1999)	106,592
- Density (1999)	4,986/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	76540/ 76000
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Rouen Cathedral

The entrance to Rouen Cathedral

Abbey church of Saint-Ouen, (chevet) in Rouen

Rouen, medieval house

Rue St-Romain on a rainy day in Rouen

Rouen (pronounced /ʀuɑ̃/ in French, sometimes also /ʀwɑ̃/) is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northwestern France on the River Seine, and currently the capital of the Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy) région. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th century to the 15th century. It is in Rouen that the English burnt Joan of Arc in 1431. People from Rouen are called Rouennais.

The population of the metropolitan area (in French: aire urbaine) at the 1999 census was 518,316 inhabitants. The city proper had a population of 106,592.

1 Administration
2 History
3 Sights
4 Miscellaneous
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Administration

Rouen is the capital of the Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy) région, as well as a commune and the préfecture (capital) of the Seine-Maritime département.

Rouen and 36 suburban communes of the metropolitan area form the Community of Agglomeration of Rouen Haute-Normandie, with 393,621 inhabitants in it at the 1999 census.

[edit] History

Rouen was 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 since 912 has been the capital of Normandy and residence of the dukes.

In the 1100s, Rouen was the site of a yeshiva; at that time, about 6,000 Jews lived in the town, comprising about 20% of the population, in addition to a large number of Jews scattered about another 100 communities in Normandy. The well-preserved remains of the yeshiva were discovered in the 1970s under the Rouen Law Courts, and the community has begun a project to restore them.

On June 24, 1204 Philippe Auguste entered Rouen and definitively annexed Normandy to the French Kingdom.

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. The French recaptured the town in 1449.

The city was heavily damaged during World War II on D-day and its famed cathedral was almost destroyed by Allied bombs. During the Nazi occupation, the German Navy had its headquarters located in a chateau on the École Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen campus.

[edit] 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.

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

Other famous structures include the Gothic Church of Saint Maclou (15th 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.

In the centre of the Place du Vieux Marché is the modern church of Saint Joan of Arc. This is a large, modern structure which dominates the square. The form of the building represents the pyre on which Joan of Arc was burnt.

Other historic structures popular with tourists include the Law Court, the Vauban Site, Chapel St-Michelle d'Ingouville, Palais de Justice.

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Transport

Rouen is served by a light rail system opened in 1994, the Métro. It branches into two lines out of a metro tunnel running through the city center. Rouen is also served by buses run in conjunction with the tramway by the local transport authority, Metrobus.

[edit] Education

École Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen, located at nearby Mont-Saint-Aignan
INSA Rouen
ESIGELEC

[edit] Births

Rouen was the birthplace of:

Edward IV (1442-1483), king of England
Isaac Oliver (c.1560-1617), French-born English portrait miniature painter
Samuel Bochart (1599-1667), theologian and Orientalist
Pierre Corneille (1606-1684), tragedian
Adrien Auzout (1622-1691), astronomer
Thomas Corneille (1625-1709), dramatist, brother of Pierre Corneille
Noel Alexandre (1630-1724), theologian and ecclesiastical historian
Marie Champmeslé (1642-1698), actress
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687), cleric and explorer
Gabriel Daniel (1649-1728), Jesuit historian
Nicolas Lemery (1645-1715), chemist
Jean Jouvenet (1647-1717), painter
Jacques Basnages (1653-1723), Protestant divine
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757), author
Pierre Antoine Motteux (1663-1718), English translator and dramatist
Pierre François le Courayer (1681-1776), Catholic theological writer
François d'Agincourt (1684-1758), composer, harpsichordist and organist
Jean Restout (1692 - 1768), painter
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711-1780), novelist
Jacques-François Blondel (1705 - 1774), architect, urbanist
Jacques Duphly (1715-1789), harpsichordist and composer
François-Adrien Boïeldieu (1775-1834), composer, mainly of operas
Pierre Louis Dulong (1785-1838), physicist and chemist
Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), painter, painted The Raft of the Medusa
Armand Carrel (1800-1836), writer
Pierre Adolphe Chéruel (1809-1891), historian
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), novelist, who wrote Madame Bovary
Eugène Ketterer (1831-1870), composer and pianist
Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941), novelist, creator of the character Arsène Lupin
Charles Nicolle (1866-1936), bacteriologist who earned the 1928 Nobel Prize in Medicine
Georges Guillain (1876-1961), neurologist
Marcel Dupré (1886-1971), organist and composer
Philippe Étancelin (1896-1981), Grand Prix motor racing
Roger Apéry (1916–1994), mathematician
Jacques Rivette(born 1928) film director
Stéphan Caron (born 1966), freestyle swimmer
Vincent Delerm (born 1976), singer-songwriter, pianist
David Trézéguet (born 1977), French-Argentine football striker
Guillaume Couture (1617-April 4, 1701), Lay Missonary and dipolmat who moved to Quebec around 1640

[edit] Twin towns

Rouen is twinned with:

[edit] Ecclesiastical history

The chapter of Rouen, (which consists of the archbishop, a dean, fifty canons, and ten prebendaries), have, ever since the year 1156, enjoyed the annual privilege of pardoning, on Ascension day, some individual confined within the jurisdiction of the city for murder. On the morning of Ascension day, the chapter, having heard many examinations and confessions read, proceed to the election of the criminal who is to be pardoned; and, the choice being made, his name is transmitted in writing to the parliament, which assemble on that day at the palace. The parliament then walk in procession to the great chamber, where the prisoner is brought before them in irons, and placed on a stool; he is informed that the choice has fallen upon him, and that he is entitled to the privilege of St. Romain.

After this form, he is delivered into the hands of the chaplain, who, accompanied by fifty armed men, conveys him to a chamber, where the chains are taken from his legs and bound about his arms; and in this condition he is conducted to a place named the Old Tower, where he awaits the coming of the procession. After some little time has elapsed, the procession sets out from the cathedral; two of the canons bear the shrine in which the relics of St. Romain are presumed to be preserved. When they have arrived at the Old Tower, the shrine is placed in the chapel, opposite to the criminal, who appears kneeling, with the chains on his arms. Then one of the canons, having made him repeat the confession, says the prayers usual at the time of giving absolution; after which service, the prisoner kneeling still, lifts up the shrine three times, amid the acclamations of the people assembled to behold the ceremony. The procession then returns to the cathedral, followed by the criminal, wearing a chaplet of flowers on his head, and carrying the shrine of the saint. After mass has been performed, he has a very serious exhortation addressed to him by a monk; and, lastly, he is conducted to an apartment near the cathedral, and is supplied with refreshments and a bed for that night. In the morning he is dismissed. This privilege was justified by the legend of the Gargouille, a fearsome dragon, and how St. Romain defeated him with the help of a prisoner...