Rouen

Rouen, city, northern France, capital of Seine-Maritime Department, on the Seine River, near the English Channel, in Normandy (Normandie). The city is a seaport for Paris and a major manufacturing center; products include textiles, clothing, paper, refined petroleum, and chemicals. The city was badly damaged in World War II, but most of its numerous architectural monuments were restored after 1945. The chief structures include the Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame (12th-15th century), noted for its Tour de Beurre (“butter tower”), which contains a large carillon; the large Flamboyant-Gothic Church of Saint Maclou (15th century); the Church of Saint Ouen (12th-15th century); the Tour de Jeanne d'Arc, a tower in which Joan of Arc was imprisoned in 1430; and the late Gothic Palais de Justice, once the seat of the parlement (law courts) of Normandy. The Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics here contains a notable collection of the faience and porcelain for which Rouen was known during the 16th to 18th centuries. The University of Rouen-Upper Normandy (1966) is near Rouen.

Called Rotomagus by the Romans, the city became an archiepiscopal see in the 5th century, and in 912 it was made the seat of the duchy of Normandy. During the Hundred Years' War, Rouen was held by the English from 1419 to 1449; Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by the English in the city in 1431. Rouen was a center of Protestantism during the Reformation, and many of its inhabitants emigrated after the Edict of Nantes (1598), assuring Protestants of many rights, was revoked in 1685. The city developed as a textile center in the 19th century. It was occupied by the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and World War II. Population (2005 estimate) 109,600.