REMARKABLE EDIFICES.
HÔTEL DU BOURGTHEROULDE,
Place de la Pucelle.
After the cathedral and Saint-Ouen, this town possesses no other monument which excites more the curiosity of french or English antiquarians. The first person who described the famous bas-reliefs of the Camp du Drap-d'Or, which ornament the exterior of the ancient gallery of the edifice, is dom Montfaucon in the 4th volume of his Monuments of the french Monarchy. He only did it, on the indications given by the abbé Noel, who gave the first explanations of these sculptures. After Montfaucon came Dr Ducarel, who has only copied the learned benedictine. Dibdin, the British antiquarian, has also paid his tribute of admiration to the hotel du Bourgtheroulde, in his Bibliographical, antiquarian and picturesque tour through France. Cotman and Dawson Turner, his countrymen, have given a place to this edifice in their respective publications. M. de Jolimont, in his most remarquable monuments in the town of Rouen devotes an article and two engravings to this edifice. MM. Nodier, Taylor and de Cailleux have enriched their picturesque and romantic tour, with a collection of lithographic engravings representing the celebrated interview between Francis Ist and Henry VIIIth, that took place in 1520 in a field situated between Guines and Ardres in Picardy. Mr A. Le Prevost has also written learned memoirs on the hotel du Bourgtheroulde. He has fixed the date of the building (about the end of the XVth century), and revealed the name of the founder (Guillaume-le-Roux), and facilitated the numerous descriptions which have been made of it. The most complete, is that given by M. Delaquérière, in his work entitled: Historical description of the houses of Rouen.
In the short description that we give of this remarkable building, we must notice the bas-reliefs, six in number, which adorn the elegant hexagonal tower, in the inner court and represent pastoral scenes. We must also add that interpreters make a great mistake when they inform strangers that the celebrated maid of Orleans (burnt in 1431) was judged and imprisoned in this building.
ANCIENT ABBEY OF SAINT AMAND,
Rue Saint-Amand.
NON EST HIC ALIVD NISI DOMVS DEI.
The pious monks who caused this simple and touching inscription to be engraven over the gate of their monastery, never supposed that one day it would offer the most strange of solecisms. Enter this house and you will have great difficulty in believing that you visit one of the most celebrated abbeys in Rouen.
This abbey, which was founded and endowed by the pious lady Aimeline, and enriched by the liberalities of Robert-the-Magnificent, this once famous monastery, which was honoured by the protection of kings, is now a confused sort of inclosure and inhabited by workmen of different kinds. Dirty courts and buildings in ruin have been for a long time the only remains of the interior of Saint-Amand. Some parts nevertheless have escaped destruction. Such is a very curious building, which had been erected about the end of the XVIth century during the life of the abbot Thomasse Daniel. This edifice is extremely remarkable from the sculptures which cover the whole front, and chiefly represent pointed windows. On the first floor, we find a room with two fire places, on one we may still distinguish in spite of mutilation, the armorial bearings of the Daniel family. The wainscot is even more curious than the sculptures which ornament the front of the house. At one of the corners of this building there is a small turret, of stone, its form is polygonal; its ornaments are rich and in very good taste: it is a fine specimen of the productions of the renaissance.
The building, with a front of the Ionic order, which is separated from the other by the turret of which we have just spoken, contains a room, which a few years ago, excited the curiosity of connoisseurs. The fire place was surmounted by an oaken wainscot, which represented, in niches separated by pilasters, four figures, those of the virgin, the angel Gabriel, Saint-Margaret and Saint-Magdalen.
BUREAU DES FINANCES,
Opposite the front of the Cathedral.
This was the ancient Palace of the Court des Aides. The building is principally composed of hewn stone: it was built about the year 1509. Although this edifice has suffered numerous degradations, it still merits the attention of connoisseurs. The building has two separate fronts: the principal one opposite the cathedral, the other in the rue du Petit-Salut. The decorations are the same on both.
In 1705, the Cour des Aides was united to the Cour des Comptes, under the name Cour de Comptes, Aides et Finances de Rouen. The present edifice has nevertheless always retained the name of Bureau des Finances.
REMARKABLE HOUSES AND CELEBRATED MEN.
Ancient town hall, rue de la Grosse-Horloge and rue Thouret.
Sculptured wooden houses, Grande-Rue, no 115 and 129.
House, rue aux Juifs, no 47 and 49.
House, rue Percière, no 11.
House, rue Bouvreuil, no 4.
House, rue Etoupée, no 4.
Houses, rue des Carmes, no 69 to 77.
House, rue Caquerel, no 13.
House, rue Damiette, no 29.
Houses, rue Eau-de-Robec, no 186, 221, 223.
Houses, rue Malpalu, no 90 and 92.
Houses, rue du Change, no 2 to 8.
Houses, rue du Bac, no 28 and 30.
House, rue des Cordeliers, no 45.
Houses which are remarkable as having been those in which the following celebrated men were born.
House in the rue de la Pie, no 4, where in 1606 the great Corneille was born.
House in the rue des Bons-Enfants, no 132-134, where Fontenelle, was born on the 11th february 1657.
House in the rue aux Ours, no 61. An inscription placed on this house reminds us, that it was here, that A. Boieldieu, the celebrated composer, was born.
House rue aux Juifs, no 9. Here Jean Jouvenet, the celebrated painter, was born on the 21st August, 1647.
To these celebrated names we must add the following of men equally natives of Rouen: Thomas Corneille (the brother of Peter), Lémery, Basnage, Samuel Bochart, the fathers Berruyer, Brumoy, Daniel, Sanadon, the painters Restout, Letellier, Sacquepée, Colombel, Lemonnier, Gericault, mademoiselle Champmeslé, madame Du Boccage, Armand Carrel, Edward Adam, Dulong. Rouen is the birth-place of many other distinguished men.