Rouen (Lat. Rotomagus), formerly the capital of Normandy, and now the chief town of the department of Seine-Inférieure, and after Lyons perhaps the principal manufacturing city of France, is situated on the right bank of the Seine, 87 miles NW. of Paris by railway. The ramparts have been converted into spacious boulevards, little inferior to those of Paris. The modern streets are well and regularly built, with good stone houses; but a considerable part of old Rouen still remains, consisting of ill-built picturesque streets and squares, with tall, narrow, quaintly carved, wood-framed and gabled houses. The Seine, upwards of 300 yards broad, makes Rouen, although 80 miles from the sea, the fourth shipping port of France; and extensive operations, in the way of deepening the river and building quays, are yearly adding to its capacity and importance, no less than £710,000 having been expended on the port between 1831 and 1887. A stone bridge and a suspension bridge lead to the Faubourg St Sever on the left bank. Rouen possesses several remarkably beautiful Gothic churches—in particular the cathedral (13th century onwards), St Ouen (14th-15th century; perhaps the best specimen of Gothic in existence), and St Maclou (florid style of the end of the 15th century). The cathedral, the seat of an archbishop, begun by Philippe Auguste, has a very rich west façade, and two fine though unfinished west towers—the south one (Tour de Beurre) was built (1485-1507) with indulgence money received for permission to eat butter during Lent—but is disfigured by a lofty cast-iron spire (487 feet) erected upon the central tower in 1876 in consequence of an old wooden belfry, which bore the date 1544, having been destroyed by fire in 1822. It contains in its twenty-five highly ornamented chapels numerous monuments of great interest, especially those of Rollo and of his son William Longsword. The heart of Richard Cœur de Lion, once buried there, is now preserved in the extensive Museum of Antiquities. Among other noteworthy buildings in Rouen are the palais de justice (15th century), in which the assizes are still held; the hôtel-de-ville, with its public library of 110,000 volumes, and its gallery of pictures; and the Hôtel Dieu, one of the largest of its kind. The principal branches of industry are cotton manufactures, including the checked and striped cottons specially designated Rouenneries, nankeens, dainty, lace, cotton-velvets, shawls, &c. Rouen has also extensive manufactories of hosiery, mixed silk and wool fabrics, blankets, flannels, hats, cordage, cotton and linen yarns, shot, steel, lead, chemicals, paper, confectionery (Sucre de pomme), &c. There are also shipbuilding-yards and engineering works. Pop. (1872) 102,470; (1891) 112,109.
History.—Rouen is specially interesting to Englishmen as the capital of the Northmen in France, and the first home of the Norman dukes. It was the scene of Rollo's baptism and marriage with Gisela, daughter of Charles the Simple, after that monarch had been constrained to cede Normandy under the treaty of Claire-sur-Epte (912), and there he and his successors lived until Duke William transferred his court to Winchester after the conquest of England (1066). At Rouen William died (1087), and till the time of John it continued the seat of government of the Norman possessions of the English kings. In 1204 it was taken by siege by the French king Philippe Auguste, and annexed along with the main part of the duchy to the French crown. During the wars of Henry V. and Henry VI. of England it was under the power of the English from 1419 to 1449, when it was retaken by the French under Charles VII. It was during this occupation by the English that Joan d'Arc was burned alive (1431) as a witch in the square of the city, in which stands her statue, and which is called in memory of her Place de la Pucelle. Rouen was the birthplace of Corneille (1606), of Fontenelle (1657), of Boieldieu (1775), of Armand Carrel (1800), and of Flaubert. Clarendon died here. It was occupied by German troops in 1870-71. See Fouquet's Histoire de Rouen (1875), and other works cited at NORMANDY.