Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — THE CITY OF ROUEN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE CITY OF ROUEN.

In This Manchester of France Joan of Are Was Burned. Rouen, capital of the ancient province of Normandy, France, has had a checkered history. It is a dty consecrated by centuries of historical associations, but it sleeps not as do some of those towns that are useful for little besides forming a connecting link between civilizations that are dead and gone and the present. Rouen is the Manchester of France. Its quays on the Seine are lined with new warehouses, and the din of its mills and the smoke of its furnaces announce that it is in touch with the progress of the age. Yet it is withal ■quaint aud picturesque. In places the buildings-'of past centuries remain, and one in beholding them can almost go back to the times of William the Conqueror or Joan of Arc. Normandy first became an important, province under the Northman, Rollo, who first was a tenor and scourge, but after his conversion to Christianity in 912 became a blessing and a founder of the Dukedom of Normandy. Rouen shared with the province the vicissitudes occasioned by the many wars of subsequent years. It was possessed by the English, the French, the Germans, the Calvinists, until finally the French obtained control and Rouen, with Normandy, became one of the most prosperous possessions of France. It was in Rouen where William the Conqueror died—the potent warrior who grafted Norman civilization on England; it was there, too, where, if we may believe history, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake after she freed France from the clutches of England and had the French King crowned at Rheims; and it is in Rouen where rest the ashes of the kingly knight Srrant, Richard Coeurde Lion, of England. Rouen is rich in ecclesiastical buildings. First comes the of Notre Dame, one of the finest Gothic churches in the world. Near the cathedral is the Abbey Church of St. Ouen. believed to be one of the most perfect Gothic edi-

fices in existence. The present structure was begun in 1318 and was not completely finished until 1852, being over 500 years in building. The church stands in a garden where Joan of Arc was forced to make a public recantation of her errors before the citizens of Rouen. The castle where Joan was imprisoned still stands. The city is the seat of an archbishop, and of a Protestant and an Israelite consistory. It has a library of 230,000 volumes, an academy of science and art and several special schools.

CASTLE OF JOAN OF ARC.