Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray
| Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray | ||
|---|---|---|
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Cultural centre "Le Rive Gauche" | ||
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  Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray | ||
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Location within Normandy region  Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray | ||
| Coordinates: 49°22′43″N 1°06′18″E / 49.3786°N 1.105°ECoordinates: 49°22′43″N 1°06′18″E / 49.3786°N 1.105°E | ||
| Country | France | |
| Region | Normandy | |
| Department | Seine-Maritime | |
| Arrondissement | Rouen | |
| Canton | Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Sotteville-lès-Rouen-Est | |
| Intercommunality | CREA | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor (2002 - 2020) | Hubert Wulfranc | |
| Area1 | 18.25 km2 (7.05 sq mi) | |
| Population (2006)2 | 28,258 | |
| • Density | 1,500/km2 (4,000/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 76575 / 76800 | |
| Elevation |
3–87 m (9.8–285.4 ft) (avg. 37 m or 121 ft) | |
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1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | ||
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
History
Evidence of ancient habitation has been found on and around the site of modern-day Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray including Neolithic tools (dated to 2000 years BC) as well as signs of Gallo-Roman settlements (200-300 years AD).[1]
A hamlet called Sancti Stephani and dependent on the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille was reported in the ninth century in a royal charter. The village then developed along the road connecting Paris to Rouen. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the parish had five hundred inhabitants. The population grew, benefiting from arable land near the river, as well as rich forests, moors and grasslands.
During the Revolution, in 1790, Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray was constituted as a political administration. The town began to take its urban and industrial character from the mid-nineteenth century with the beginning of the industrial revolution and the arrival of the railway.[2]
The first steam trains of Western Railway Company between Paris and Rouen began service in 1843,[3] increasing the attractiveness of the town for industry. The 1860s saw the establishment of a large cotton factory creating hundreds of jobs, and led to the expansion of the town to accommodate its expanding workforce.
In the early twentieth century, the opening of the railway workshops of Quatre-Mares (1913), the arrival of the Fonderie Lorraine in 1916 and the Stationery Chapel (1928) reinforced the industrial character of the city.
In 1923, three years after the Tours Congress which saw the separation of the communist majority (KIS) and the minority Socialist (SFIO), Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray became one of the first cities in France to elect a communist controlled council.
On 26 July 2016 two knife-wielding men, supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, burst into a 16th-century church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, took five hostages and killed an 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest, the Reverend Jacques Hamel, before they were shot and killed by police.[4]
Geography
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray is a large suburban town of light industry and forestry situated by the banks of the Seine, some 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the centre of Rouen on the D18 and the D18e roads. The commune is served by the Rouen tramway.
Heraldry
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The arms of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray are blazoned : Gules, 2 leopards respectant Or, armed and langued azure, issuant from the sides of the field, and maintaining a toothed wheel, in base 3 barrulets wavy argent, and on a chief azure a crozier head Or between 2 sessile oaks argent, all issuant from the line of division. (Quercus petraea) |
Population
| Year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 25,833 | 34,713 | 37,242 | 32,444 | 30,731 | 29,092 | 28,258 |
| From the year 1962 on: No double counting—residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) are counted only once. | |||||||
Twin towns
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray is twinned with Nordenham (Germany), Nova Kakhovka (Ukraine), and Gateshead, Tyne and Wear (UK).
Places of interest
- The sixteenth-century church of St Étienne.
- The church of St Thérèse.
- The twentieth-century church of Notre-Dame.
- "Le Rive Gauche" cultural centre.
- The Technopole at Madrillet.
- The fifteenth-century manorhouse du Madrillet, in the forest.
See also
References
- ↑ http://www.ville-saintetiennedurouvray.fr/pages/histoire
- ↑ http://www.ville-saintetiennedurouvray.fr/pages/du-neolithique-a-la-revolution-industrielle
- ↑ http://www.ville-saintetiennedurouvray.fr/pages/de-la-ville-industrielle-a-la-conscience-ouvriere
- ↑ "Teenagers who killed French priest made film declaring allegiance to Isis", by Kim Willsher, The Guardian
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. |
- Website about Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray (French)
- Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray on the Quid website (French)
