Coverage · France
Rouen
Rouen is a city where the Middle Ages never quite left: half-timbered streets lead to soaring Gothic spires, and the square where Joan of Arc was burned in 1431 still anchors daily life. Claude Monet painted its cathedral facade over thirty times, chasing the light on stone that has stood since 1145.
28+ researched places in the app
Places researched in this city
A selection of the 28 places we've researched in this city. The full set is in the Parroo app.
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Rouen Cathedral
At 151 meters tall, this Gothic masterpiece was once the tallest building in the world, and its construction stretches from 1145 all the way into the 16th century. Monet painted its facade in series more than thirty times, turning shifting light on stone into one of Impressionism's defining obsessions.
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The Great Clock
The clock mechanism inside this Renaissance arch dates to 1389, making it one of the oldest in France, yet its ornate 2.5-meter golden-sun dial only got its street-spanning arch in 1527. The Gothic belfry beside it rises 56 meters and you can climb it for a close look at the works.
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Old Market Square
On May 30, 1431, a nineteen-year-old Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on this square, and the modern church built on that exact spot in 1979 was designed to evoke the hull of a Viking longship. The square's daily market has been running in various forms since the medieval period.
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Palace of Justice of Rouen
Built between 1499 and 1517 as a showpiece of Flamboyant Gothic architecture, this courthouse hides a remarkable secret beneath its courtyard: the Maison Sublime, a Romanesque structure from around 1100 that is the oldest surviving Jewish monument in France, accidentally rediscovered during renovations in 1976.
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Saint-Ouen Abbey Church
Often mistaken for the cathedral by first-time visitors, this Rayonnant Gothic church took from 1318 to 1537 to build, yet its interior reads as a single, unified vision. Its 80 original stained-glass windows cover 1,523 square meters, and the 1890 Cavaillé-Coll organ remains one of the finest in France.
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Saint-Maclou Cemetery
Built between 1526 and 1533 to store the bones of Black Death victims, whose burials had overwhelmed the nearby parish churchyard since 1348, this timber-framed courtyard is covered in Renaissance carvings of skulls, gravediggers' tools, and dancing skeletons. It is one of the rarest surviving medieval ossuaries in Europe.
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Sainte-Catherine Coast
This 140-meter chalk hill east of Rouen is the classic vantage point for the cathedral and the Seine's wide meander, but its geological profile of Cenomanian chalk from the Late Cretaceous period also draws paleontologists. It is a Natura 2000 site and the only place in the world where the endemic Rouen violet grows wild.
Good to know
- How many places does Parroo cover in Rouen?
- 28 researched places, from the Rouen Cathedral and the Great Clock to lesser-known spots like the Saint-Maclou Cemetery ossuary. Each one has a short summary, a full article, and a ~3-minute audio story.
- Is there an audio guide?
- Yes. Every place has a ~3-minute audio story, written from the perspective of a guide standing next to you and produced with premium narration, not the article read aloud.
- Which languages is Rouen available in?
- German, English, and French. Pick whichever you'd rather read or listen in.
- Do I need to book anything or be online?
- No booking, no signup. It's a self-guided walk you start whenever you like. You do need a connection for now to stream the audio and load articles; offline support is something we're still building.
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Updated: 2026-05-29