It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , the population of the metropolitan area French : aire d'attraction is , Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy during the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman and Angevin dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th to the 15th centuries.
From the 13th century onwards, the city experienced a remarkable economic boom, thanks in particular to the development of textile factories and river trade. Claimed by both the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War , it was on its soil that Joan of Arc was tried and burned alive on 30 May Severely damaged by the wave of bombing in , it nevertheless regained its economic dynamism in the post-war period thanks to its industrial sites and its large seaport, which merged with the ports of Le Havre and Paris in to form the HAROPA Port.
Endowed with a prestige established during the medieval era , and with a long architectural heritage in its historical monuments, Rouen is an important cultural capital. Seat of an archdiocese , it also hosts a court of appeal and a university.
Every four to six years, Rouen becomes the showcase for a large gathering of sailing ships called "L'Armada"; this event makes the city an occasional capital of the maritime world. Rouen was founded by the Gaulish tribe of the Veliocasses , who controlled a large area in the lower Seine valley. They called it Ratumacos ; the Romans called it Rotomagus. It was considered the second city of Gallia Lugdunensis after Lugdunum Lyon itself. Under the reorganization of Diocletian , Rouen was the chief city of the divided province Gallia Lugdunensis II and reached the apogee of its Roman development, with an amphitheatre and thermae of which foundations remain.
In the 5th century, it became the seat of a bishopric and later a capital of Merovingian Neustria. From their first incursion into the lower valley of the Seine in , the Normans overran Rouen. From , Rouen was the capital of the Duchy of Normandy and residence of the local dukes , until William the Conqueror moved his residence to Caen. During the 12th century, Rouen was the site of a yeshiva known as La Maison Sublime. Discovered in , it is now a museum. Rouen also depended for its prosperity on the river traffic of the Seine, on which it enjoyed a monopoly that reached as far upstream as Paris.
