The Seine, Industry and Reconstruction
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Transcript
Finish facing the Seine, the infrastructure behind Rouen’s repeated reinvention.
In the nineteenth century Rouen and the lower Seine became heavily industrialised, especially in textiles, chemicals and port activity. Railways and factories expanded the city beyond the medieval centre.
During the Second World War the industrial and transport importance of the Seine made Rouen a major bombing target. Allied raids and fighting in 1944 destroyed large areas and killed civilians as the campaign sought to cripple German logistics and liberate Normandy.
Post-war reconstruction introduced modern buildings and roads alongside repaired historic monuments.
The result is not a failure of preservation. It is evidence of what happened.
Old towns can become misleading when every post-war building is treated as an aesthetic mistake rather than a historical source. Rouen’s twentieth century deserves to remain visible.