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.
