Rouen is Normandy's cultural capital, a cathedral city on the Seine that has been important since the Vikings sailed upriver in the 9th century and made it the capital of their new duchy. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in the old market square in 1431, and the spot is now marked by a striking modern church with stained glass salvaged from a medieval predecessor destroyed in the war.
The centre is a dense maze of half-timbered houses and cobbled streets, punctuated by Gothic monuments: the cathedral (painted obsessively by Monet), the Gros-Horloge astronomical clock spanning the main street, the flamboyant Gothic law courts, and the church of Saint-Maclou with its five-porched entrance of carved wood. The Aître Saint-Maclou, a former plague cemetery with carved death motifs, is one of the most unusual sights in France.
Rouen also has excellent museums, notably the Musée des Beaux-Arts with its strong collection of Impressionist paintings.