Rouen: Monet's Cathedral, the Gros-Horloge and the Square Where Joan of Arc Died
Normandy, France
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250
XP
+100 France
= 350 total
1 day
Rouen: Monet's Cathedral, the Gros-Horloge and the Square Where Joan of Arc Died
250 + 100 XP
Claude Monet painted thirty canvases of the west front of Rouen cathedral. Its cast-iron spire, begun in 1825 and topped out in the 1870s, reaches 151 m, which makes it the tallest cathedral in France and made it the tallest building in the world until Cologne passed it in 1880; it is still the third tallest church anywhere, after Ulm and Cologne, and its west front, 61.60 m wide, is the widest in France. Three hundred metres west the Gros-Horloge spans a street on a Renaissance pavilion of 1527–1529, its 2.50 m dial a gilded twenty-four-rayed sun on a starry blue ground with a single hand ending in a lamb, driven by a movement made in 1389 that is among the oldest in France. On the Place du Vieux-Marché a cross stands beside the spot where Joan of Arc was burned on 30 May 1431, and the Aître Saint-Maclou is a plague charnel house whose galleries of 1526 to 1533 are carved with skulls, bones and gravediggers' tools.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Stand where Monet stood and work out what he was painting: a west front 61.60 m wide whose two towers do not match — the Tour Saint-Romain and the Tour de Beurre — which is why Rouen is called the most human of cathedrals. Then go inside and find the repaired south aisle and the flying buttresses of the Sainte-Catherine chapel, which held the nave up on their own after seven torpedoes hit the building on the night of 18 to 19 April 1944
2
of 5
Under the Gros-Horloge, find the lamb on the end of the single hand, then the 30 cm sphere in the oculus above the dial that turns once in 29 days to give the moon's phase, and at the foot of the dial the weekday window — Diana with her bow drawn by stags for Monday, Mars in armour drawn by wolves for Tuesday — and inside the belfry the movement made in 1389, one of the oldest in France
3
of 5
On the Place du Vieux-Marché find the cross raised beside the site of the pyre, as the rehabilitation trial had stipulated back in 1456, and read the line the law of 1920 required on it — À Jeanne d'Arc LE PEUPLE FRANÇAIS RECONNAISSANT — then find the execution ground itself, with the pillory and the firebreak wall for the burnings, dug out between 1970 and 1976 beside the foundations of the vanished church of Saint-Sauveur
4
of 5
In the Aître Saint-Maclou, work along the wall plates and posts naming the bones as you find them — skulls, tibias, shoulder blades — then the gravediggers' picks and coffins, the danse macabre couples on the west and east columns, and the mummified cat. Then find the one gallery with no carving at all: the south range, built a century after the rest, in 1651
5
of 5
Go into the church of Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc on the same square, Louis Arretche's building of the late 1970s that looks like a Viking ship from one side and a fish from the other, and find the thirteen 16th-century windows it was built around — saved from the choir of Saint-Vincent before the bombs destroyed it in 1944
Stand where Monet stood and work out what he was painting: a west front 61.60 m wide whose two towers do not match — the Tour Saint-Romain and the Tour de Beurre — which is why Rouen is called the most human of cathedrals. Then go inside and find the repaired south aisle and the flying buttresses of the Sainte-Catherine chapel, which held the nave up on their own after seven torpedoes hit the building on the night of 18 to 19 April 1944
Under the Gros-Horloge, find the lamb on the end of the single hand, then the 30 cm sphere in the oculus above the dial that turns once in 29 days to give the moon's phase, and at the foot of the dial the weekday window — Diana with her bow drawn by stags for Monday, Mars in armour drawn by wolves for Tuesday — and inside the belfry the movement made in 1389, one of the oldest in France
On the Place du Vieux-Marché find the cross raised beside the site of the pyre, as the rehabilitation trial had stipulated back in 1456, and read the line the law of 1920 required on it — À Jeanne d'Arc LE PEUPLE FRANÇAIS RECONNAISSANT — then find the execution ground itself, with the pillory and the firebreak wall for the burnings, dug out between 1970 and 1976 beside the foundations of the vanished church of Saint-Sauveur
In the Aître Saint-Maclou, work along the wall plates and posts naming the bones as you find them — skulls, tibias, shoulder blades — then the gravediggers' picks and coffins, the danse macabre couples on the west and east columns, and the mummified cat. Then find the one gallery with no carving at all: the south range, built a century after the rest, in 1651
Go into the church of Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc on the same square, Louis Arretche's building of the late 1970s that looks like a Viking ship from one side and a fish from the other, and find the thirteen 16th-century windows it was built around — saved from the choir of Saint-Vincent before the bombs destroyed it in 1944
Before you go
Walking under the Gros-Horloge arch is free, but going up into the belfry to see the 1389 movement is a ticketed museum visit with its own hours; it was closed for restoration from November 2023 and reopened in March 2024, so check before counting on it. The cathedral spire has been under restoration since 2016 — expect scaffolding, and note the whole west front Monet painted may be partly covered. The Aître Saint-Maclou is a free courtyard but closes at night, and the Vieux-Marché holds a small market under the halle most mornings.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
250 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
350 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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