About this place
Begun in 1499 on the orders of King Louis the Twelfth to house the Échiquier that became the Parliament of Normandy, the Palais de Justice is one of the finest examples of late medieval civil architecture in France. Its facade is a riot of Flamboyant Gothic stonework, encrusted with pinnacles, tracery, and gargoyles, and it still serves as the city's courthouse today. Scattered across the stone are pockmarks left by the heavy bombing and fighting of 1944, deliberately preserved as a memorial to the war. The building's greatest secret lies underground. In 1976, workers repaving the courtyard uncovered a Romanesque stone building from around the year 1100, roughly nine hundred years old and the oldest surviving Jewish monument in France. Hebrew graffiti on its walls, including the line may this house be sublime, gave it the name Maison Sublime, a reminder that the adjoining Rue aux Juifs was once the heart of a renowned medieval Jewish community.
Key facts
- 1499 year — Louis the Twelfth ordered the palace built
- 1976 year — The hidden Maison Sublime was rediscovered in the courtyard
- 900 years — The approximate age of the Maison Sublime beneath the court
📍 Rue aux Juifs 34, 76000, Rouen