Evening star., 1937-05-14
HISTORIC ROUEN
SHIPPING CENTER
City on Seine Has Colorful
Past-Battered in
Many Wars.

"Rouen, on the Seine" says bull
letin from the headquarters of the
National Geographic Society, has
seen history in the making for so many
centuries that outlines of it's early
career are faded and smudged on the
map of time. Nearly 1000 years ago
Roman conquerors found it already
Observation-Disclosures They twisted
its Celtic name into the Roman 'Roto-
magus'; later, in medieval Latin, it
became 'Rodomum' and, finally,
'Rouen'
Though antiquarians complain that
Rouen Is going ultra modern, that
'monstrous music hall ads electric
lights and fashionable shopping dis
tricts are diluting its mellow atmos-
phere, echoes of the Rouen that was
still persists in narrow, winding streets
of the older sections Of town. True, its
ancient moats have been dried up into
boulevards, its draWbridges raZed, but
overhanging caves of tottering old
houses, gabled roofs with dormer win
doWs and wood carved decorations
from an earlier day survive to bring
nostalgia pains, to students Of history,
for the medieval and Renaissance city.
High above a modern skyline of
residential homes, warehouses and
Office buildings the lantern spire of
Rouen's famous cathedral jostles the
clouds-a thirteenth century founda-
ton promise fulfilled 400 years ago.
At the end of many a dark, alley-li
street looms the shadoWy mass of q
delicately designed Gothic church.
keeping memory green of the time
when Rouen became seat of Epis-
copal power, as far back as the third
century, churches, towers and streets
still carry names Of Rouens first
lrchbishops-St. Mellon, Avitian,
Victrix, Ouen, Roman.
Joan of Arc Burned There.
"A plain stone slab, sunk in the
pavement of the Old Market Square,
covers the historic spot where Joan Of
Arc-imprisoned, tried and convicted
of witchcraft in 143l-was chained to
the stake and burned. From the
Bridge Of Rouen her ashes were tossed
into the Seine
"Sandwiched between the massa-
cres, invasions, religious wars fires
and plaques that kept life from getting
monotonous for early Rouenians, the
towns infrequent calms were marked
by conspicuous prosperity.
1T was its wealth, the commercial
dividends resulting from a happy
location between lie Havre and Paris
on the looping Seine, that tempted the
Viking pirates of the ninth and tenth
centuries. Around the statue of one
OF them, Rollo the Norman, children
now play in little park near st.
Ouen Church. Rollo sailed up the
Seine with his men, burning and
sacking. In 9l4 he took Rouen, max
Ing it his Norman capital. Beneath
his statue. an imperious figure with
hand outflung in gesture of owner
ship, an inscription reads: The Land
Over Which I Rule-I Keep
The periods of peace were few and
centuries apart In Rouen. Romans
and Franks in its youth, English,
French and Normans, Catholics and
Protestants all battered the town. In
the War of 1870 the Germans oc-
cupied it. During the World War. the
city again played an important role
as major British supply base.
Through the years, ships of COM
merce tying up at the docks Of Rouen
have been challenged and rivaled by
men OF war. Yet one Of the most
dramatic scenes in its water front life
concerned neither war nor business,
William, Duke of Normandy, con-
queror and King of England, had been
brought to Rouen to die slow and
painful death. In 1887, his body-in
purple and crimson colored barge
noated quietly away from the rude
cuays down the Seine.
Popular Tourist Goal.
Such historic associations have
made Rouen a popular tourist goal,
Because of its carefully preserved
relics, its well-equipped libraries and
museums, 1t Is often called the 'Mu-
scum Town Every year visitors
swarm there to dip into the past, to
wander along its ancient lanes and |
study its Cathedral and churches.
yet tourist business, welcome as it |
Is, after ALL is secondary matter to |
Rouen, still cashing in on its strategic |
position between Paris, the inland
capital, and LIE Havre's door to the sea.
Rouen ranks as one Of the leading
ports OF France. Most of her 12O. 900
citizens are interested in one way or
another in import and export intrica-
eies, in warehouse calculations, in the
textile industries that have grown up.
Rouen has become the capital of vast
cotton business. She plays a promi-
nent role In providing Paris with ne
eessities, In shipping English coal and
petroleum.
Down on the docks you smell wet
rope, fruits, tar, dried flsh-aromatic
odors that have made Rouen's water
'front.' reek for centuries. But the
throbbing of twentieth century ma
chinery, the hammering and humping
as armies Of workers load and unload
cargoes, a forest of giant cranes, and
big ships tied up far out into the river
name Rouen one Of the modern of
moderns among shipping centers of
the uor1d