Rouen (France) – Location, History, Facts

Rouen is a city and commune in northwestern France, on the River Seine, and serves as the capital of Normandy and prefecture of Seine-Maritime.

Rouen, France.

Country: France
Coordinates: 49.4431° N, 1.1025° E
Country and region: France; Normandy region
Departmental role: Prefecture of Seine-Maritime
Commune code: INSEE 76540; department code 76; region code 28

Rouen overview

Rouen is a city and commune in northwestern France, on the River Seine, and serves as the capital of Normandy and prefecture of Seine-Maritime. Its public role combines regional administration with metropolitan coordination through the Métropole Rouen Normandie. The city’s position on the Seine also shaped its economic history: textile production and river trade supported medieval growth, while industrial sites and the port contributed to post-war recovery. Administrative buildings, transport networks, museums, and surviving historic structures make those overlapping roles visible in the urban fabric.

Official recorded sales

Residential property prices in Rouen

The median recorded residential sale price was €2,812 per m² across 12,411 qualifying transactions in 2021–2025. This is a historical transaction measure, not a live asking price or a valuation.

Apartment median: €2,818/m²
House median: €2,777/m²
Source updated: 2026-07-17

Open the full data analysis and methodology

Rouen coordinates

Rouen is commonly mapped at approximately 49.4431° N, 1.1025° E, or 49.4431, 1.1025 in decimal degrees.

Degrees: 49.4431° N, 1.1025° E

Decimal: 49.4431, 1.1025

Where Rouen is located

Rouen lies in northwestern France on the River Seine. It is the prefecture of the Seine-Maritime department and the capital of the Normandy region, placing it within both departmental and regional administrative systems. The commune covers 21.38 square kilometres and uses the postal codes 76000 and 76100. It is also part of the Métropole Rouen Normandie intercommunality, which connects the city to a wider metropolitan area whose listed 2022 population was 712,886, compared with 117,662 inhabitants for the commune in 2023.

A prefecture, arrondissement seat, and metropolitan commune

Rouen performs departmental, arrondissement, and intercommunal administrative functions within Normandy.

The city’s civic function operates at several French administrative levels. It is the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, the capital of Normandy, and an arrondissement seat, so it serves as a location for departmental, regional, and arrondissement public administration. It is also a commune with the INSEE code 76540 and belongs to the Métropole Rouen Normandie intercommunality. These statuses distinguish the municipality itself from the larger metropolitan structure around it. The commune record identifies the administrative codes used for these systems, including department code 76, region code 28, and SIREN 217605401.

A Seine-side city connected by historic and metropolitan infrastructure

Rouen’s urban form reflects the relationship between a historic centre, the Seine, port activity, and regional transport links.

The Seine is a structural part of the city’s setting because river trade helped drive its medieval prosperity and the port later supported industrial recovery. The built environment retains major historic markers, including Rouen Cathedral, the Gros Horloge, Saint-Ouen Abbey, the Palais de Justice, Saint-Maclou, Joan of Arc’s tower, and surviving half-timbered buildings. Modern connections extend beyond the centre: rail services link the city with Paris, Le Havre, Caen, Dieppe, Amiens, Lille, Lyon, and Marseille, while the tramway, buses, and TEOR serve local movement.

From Norman government and textile trade to port-led recovery

Rouen’s public and economic role changed from a medieval governmental and textile centre to a modern industrial and port city marked by wartime reconstruction.

During the medieval period, Rouen was one of Europe’s largest and most prosperous cities. It became the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy and a capital of the Anglo-Norman and Angevin dynasties, giving the city a governmental role beyond local commerce. From the thirteenth century, textile production and trade along the Seine supported further prosperity. The Second World War severely disrupted this inheritance: bombing in 1944 heavily damaged the city and nearly destroyed the cathedral. Post-war recovery was connected to industrial sites and the seaport.

Cathedral, museums, port bodies, and metropolitan networks

Rouen’s civic identity is shaped by administrative bodies, cultural institutions, transport systems, and the Seine port complex.

The city’s institutions express several kinds of public life. The cathedral, Saint-Ouen Abbey, the Palais de Justice, and other historic churches preserve religious, judicial, and architectural functions associated with the urban centre. Museums broaden that institutional landscape: the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Musée des Antiquités, Musée de la céramique, Musée Le Secq des Tournelles, and the port and maritime museum address art, archaeology, craft, technology, and maritime history. The port is also part of HAROPA Port, formed in 2021 through the administrative merger of the ports of Rouen, Le Havre, and Paris.

A regional capital where contested history remains public

Rouen represents Normandy’s administrative centre while preserving public reminders of dynastic power, religious architecture, conflict, and maritime commerce.

The city’s symbolic role comes from the way several historical narratives occupy the same urban setting. Joan of Arc was tried and burned at the stake there on 30 May 1431, and Charles VII recaptured the city in 1449, linking it to the political conflicts of the Hundred Years’ War. Medieval government and trade are represented by the former Exchequer, historic buildings, and river-based commerce. The 1944 bombing and the cathedral’s near-destruction add a modern history of damage and reconstruction. L’Armada, held every four to six years, connects that civic setting to contemporary maritime culture.