Just passing through Rouen? We strongly recommend a visit to the Historial Jeanne d’Arc museum in Rouen. Located in the archiepiscopal palace in the heart of the medieval quarter, it has been open since 2015.
Through an immersive journey, the visitor can discover the story of Joan of Arc, from the end of her life to her posterity. Indeed, the palace itself was the setting for Joan of Arc’s 2 trials, and it was on the Place du Vieux-Marché that she was burned alive in 1431. With 1,000m2 dedicated to a spectacular and innovative visit, we’re convinced that the Historial will become a must-see in Rouen!
In this article, we’ll give you some tips on how to plan your visit to this unusual museum.
This review is completely independent, we visited anonymously and paid our admission in full.
Why visit the Historial Jeanne d’Arc?
Is the Historial Jeanne d’Arc museum worth it? Our opinion:
Certainly! You’ll be truly immersed in the 15th century. We enjoyed learning more about the story of Joan of Arc in a fun, educational and immersive way. The 2nd part of the tour is dedicated to the study of Joan of Arc’s posteriority. We found it very interesting, as museums don’t usually offer visitors a critical look at how history is written.
Why is the Historial famous?
The Historial is France’s largest museum dedicated to Joan of Arc. What’s more, it’s located in Rouen’s archiepiscopal palace, where the 2 trials of the Pucelle d’Orléans took place.
What we liked best
It’s hard to choose what we liked best about our visit, so innovative was it. But here are a few of our favorites:
- The second trial of Joan of Arc: the originality of the staging and the changes of rooms make it easier to grasp and retain the historical information!
- The panorama from the Tour du Guet: the climb to the top of the Tour du Guet is well worth it: it offers superb views of Rouen’s main monuments.
- The cabinet of curiosities: we found this a very amusing space, displaying all sorts of unusual objects bearing the effigy of Joan of Arc!
Practical tips and map: Joan of Arc Museum, France.
Where is the Historial?
The Historial – Musée Jeanne d’Arc is located at 7, rue Saint-Romain, in Rouen (76000), Normandy.
- Driving time from Evreux: 55min.
- Driving time from Caen: 01h30min.
- Driving time from Alençon: 01h45min.
- Driving time from Cherbourg: 02h50min.
- Driving time from Paris: 02h20min.
How to get there
Traffic in Rouen is difficult, especially at rush hour. If you’re coming from the Paris region or Normandy, prefer the train. Rouen railway station has a regular TER line serving Paris (between 1h15 and 1h30) and the main towns in Normandy (Caen, Le Havre…).
See available timetables and book your train and coach tickets now.
The Historial is located in the city center. From Rouen Rive Droite SNCF station, it’s just a 15-minute walk. You can also take public transport, which will take you to the front of the museum in around ten minutes:
- Metro line: Théâtre des arts station.
- TEOR bus lines: 1, 2, 3 Cathédrale stop.
- Fast bus line: F2, F7 Stop Beaux-Arts.
- Bus line 11: République stop.
To plan your journey, please visit the official Rouen Normandie transport network website.
Last but not least, you can rent bicycles in the city 24/7. Here are the Cy’clic stations near the museum:
- Station 1: Rue Jeanne d’Arc.
- Station 4: Allée Eugène Delacroix.
- Station 5: Rue de l’Hôpital.
- Station 9: Rue de la République.
Parking
The Historial – Musée Jeanne d’Arc has no parking facilities. It can be very difficult to find a parking space in the center of Rouen. We advise you to use the nearby pay parking lots:
- Cathedral parking lot: 5min walk from the Historial.
- Hôtel de Ville parking lot: 5min walk from the Historial.
- Parking Opéra – Rouen Normandie: 5min walk from the Historial.
- Q-Park Palais de Justice: 7min walk from the Historial.
OUR ADVICE FOR RENTING A CAR IN Normandy
- Compare prices on our preferred platform: DiscoverCars – one of the best rated sites.
- Choose a car that is comfortable enough (distances can be long) but compact (some parking lots and villages are narrow).
- Think of thecomplete insurance (some roads are tortuous and narrow).
- There is a lot of demand, book it early.
Best time to visit the Historial
Peak attendance at the museum is around 12pm and 3pm. If you’d like to enjoy some peace and quiet during your visit, we advise you to choose a period outside school vacations, and to go during the week rather than at weekends.
How long to visit the museum and main difficulties
This tour takes 2 hours. The immersive multimedia tour of the Joan of Arc epic lasts 1h15. The other areas are quicker to visit, but you should allow at least 30 minutes. You can visit them independently of the immersive tour. This may be a solution to consider for people suffering from hypersensitivity. In our opinion, the spectacular staging can be hard to bear for this audience.
The ground is not particularly difficult, except for the Watchtower staircase. Being from the outset, the climb can seem steep. The Watchtower is the only space inaccessible to people with reduced mobility. A wheelchair is available at reception.
Multimedia facilities are available for the visually impaired and blind (audiodescription tour) and for the hearing impaired (subtitling of dialogues on tablet, tour fully translated into French sign language).
The toilets are located just after the rooms dedicated to the immersive tour. There’s a store on the first floor.
Advice on how to visit
There is only one way to visit. You won’t be able to start your visit whenever you like. When you arrive at reception, you’ll find a digital counter showing the time remaining before the start of the next immersive tour. Once you’ve completed this tour, you’ll find yourself in the rooms devoted to Joan of Arc’s exploits, then in the attic where you’ll relive her rehabilitation trial and martyrdom, followed by the watchtower, the Mythotheque, the cabinet of curiosities and Aubigné’s chapel.
Remember that the Mythothèque rooms can be accessed independently of the classic tour route.
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Historial Jeanne d’Arc with children
In our opinion, the museum is very suitable for younger visitors! The fact that it’s immersive and spectacular will undoubtedly appeal to your children. To enhance the fun aspect of the visit, a free game book is available at reception.
For the youngest visitors, aged 3 to 6, the museum team has designed a tour specifically for them: “L’Historial des tout-petits”. Accompanied by a mediator and an accompanying parent, they will have to complete a series of puzzles and mini-games in the space of 1 hour. This activity, priced at €4 per person (per adult and per child), is available on reservation. Check out the next dates for this workshop and book your ticket on the official online ticketing service.
Schedules and rates
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 7pm (last multimedia tour at 5:15pm). Visitors are asked to leave the exhibition halls 15 minutes before the site closes.
The Historial Jeanne d’Arc is closed on Mondays, January 1, May 1 and December 25.
Prices are as follows:
- Full adult rate: 11€.
- Reduced rate: €8 (children aged 6 to 18, students, jobseekers…)
- Tribe rate: €32 for 4 people (2 adult tickets + 2 tickets for children under 18)
- Free admission for children under 6.
Workshops cost from €4 to €6. To consult all our rates and the list of those eligible for reduced and free rates, visit the official website.
You can buy your ticket on the spot or now on the official online ticketing site.
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Guided tours
Audioguides are available free of charge from reception. You’ll find them in the following languages:
- English
- German
- Spanish
- Chinese
- Japanese
- Dutch
- Portuguese
- Italian
- Russian
Guided tours are only available on request from the museum’s reservations department. A mediator will help you access the multimedia content and object collections, and provide additional information during the show.
Why not take advantage of your visit to the Historial to take a guided tour of the medieval town center? You can opt for a tour with a local guide. There are also tours focusing on the secrets of the Normandy capital or its sweet culinary specialties.
Restaurants nearby:
The medieval quarter is packed with good places to take a culinary break. Here is our selection:
- Dame Cakes: housed in a former wrought-iron workshop, this tea room is one of our favorites, offering succulent pastries (cakes, tarts, crumbles…) and wedding teas! From the room on the 1st floor, you’ll have a superb view of the cathedral. Dame Cakes is a must for any gourmet break in Rouen!
- Le Cap Vers: a restaurant a stone’s throw from the Seine specializing in world cuisine, revisited with fresh, local produce.
- Le XXI: refined cuisine in a restaurant whose concept is to change the way we look at disability.
WHERE TO STAY IN Rouen
Option 1: in the old town center
A charming historic heart, museums and attractions around every corner… We recommend..:
- Gustave Flaubert Literary Hotel with lots of quotes – see prices, photos and availability.
- Hôtel de Bourghteroulde set in a 16th-century residence – see prices, photos and availability.
Option 2: near the station
Just a 10-minute walk from the historic center, you’ll find more modern options. We recommend..:
- Blu Radisson Hotel next to the Jeanne d’Arc Tower – see prices, photos and availability.
- Hotel de Dieppe Best Western and its Art-deco ambience – see prices, photos and availability
An innovative journey: the epic of Joan of Arc
Immersion at the heart of the 1st trial
You’ll be charmed from the moment you enter the museum, which opens onto a courtyard dotted with sculptures. You can wait in the glassed-in, walk-through reception area. In fact, we spent some time watching the digital counter indicating our waiting time before we could begin our visit. In this vaulted room, you’ll see projections that explain the historical context of Joan of Arc’s time. We were already transported to the 15th century!
We then moved into the next room, a Gothic crypt with benches. Soon the projection began, and a character addressed us. Juvénal des Ursins, a 15th-century lawyer and politician, explains the origins and mission of Joan of Arc. It also plunges us into the history of Joan of Arc’s judicial investigation. We are immersed in a wooded setting, in a castle, or in the medieval city of Chinon.
Some of the 120 people who testified at the time are presented here. Next, our virtual guide Juvenal des Ursins invites us to move on to the next rooms, devoted to Joan of Arc’s rehabilitation trial, for which he was the main instigator. You then move on to the next stage of the tour.
The rehabilitation trial
From the Gothic crypt, we take a staircase that leads to a landing and a new vaulted room. An information panel explains that, after having been at the heart of the investigation and trial of 1431, we’re now going to discover the rehabilitation trial of Joan of Arc in 1456. Benches surround the pillars. We sit down for another viewing. New witnesses take the floor, while medieval representations follow one another in the picture. We witness Joan of Arc’s meeting with the King. His feats of arms are mentioned in greater detail in the next room.
In the next room, you’ll find a set of touch-sensitive tablets, surrounded by a chronological frieze (Joan of Arc’s assault on Paris, the siege of Orleans, etc.). This is enhanced by a projection of Joan of Arc’s historic exploits (the coronation of King Charles VII at Reims, the Battle of Orleans…) to free the people from English occupation. Maps and battle scenes transport us into this tormented period, making it easier to understand. Time was running out, but we soon had to take the stairs back up to the roof of the palace.
The martyrdom of Joan of Arc
On the way up, we enjoyed fine views of the chevet of Rouen’s splendid cathedral. We then moved into a large attic space equipped with benches and a projector. Little did we know that we were in the most sensational room of the immersive tour. We were plunged into darkness. The sound of crackling flames invaded our screens, startling us. We witnessed Joan of Arc’s condemnation and felt as if we were at the stake!
The projection ends with our guide Juvenal des Ursins talking about the rehabilitation trial of 1456. This room, which we found very spectacular and do not recommend for hypersensitive visitors, marks the end of the immersive tour. The next space contains explanatory and synthetic panels. They discuss the witnesses we heard at the trials, the political situation after Joan of Arc’s death, and offer a glimpse of what lies ahead for the rest of the tour.
The Mythotheque
The Mythothèque comprises three rooms housing archival documents and multimedia devices. This tour highlights the posterity of Joan of Arc. On display are history textbooks and representations of this young woman sanctified over the centuries.
We found the next room very interesting, dedicated to historians and their study of this figure, which has sometimes served as an emblem and given rise to numerous fables. Chronicles from the 15th century onwards mention La Pucelle d’Orléans, until the 19th century, when Joan of Arc became a national icon. These are the historians of the 21st century whom we were able to interview in the small adjoining room.
We were pleasantly surprised to see historians appear digitally in front of a library. Buttons and headsets allow you to put questions to each of these specialist Joan of Arc researchers (Colette Beaune, Philippe Contamine, Anne Curry and Olivier Bouzy). In our opinion, it’s fun, educational and innovative, and creates a close link between the world of research and visitors.
The Cabinet of Curiosities
After the Mythothèque, here we are again in an atypical place, a cabinet of curiosities! This collection of objects of all kinds comes from the Camille Vallery-Radot collection, the second largest in France. In the 19th century, Joan of Arc enthusiast Camille Vallery-Radot (1880-1927) opened a museum in her home dedicated to the Pucelle d’Orléans. Over the years, it has collected almost 2,600 books and brochures, 3,500 iconographic documents, 3,600 newspaper and magazine articles, as well as 500 objects of all kinds. On her death, she bequeathed her collection to the city of Rouen.
We were able to see film posters, plates engraved with the heroine’s effigy, a view on projector glass from the last century, and most surprising of all, a coulommiers tin featuring Joan of Arc on its lid!
USE OUR GUIDE TO PLAN A
DREAM TRIP TO Normandy
All the information you need for your trip:
- 8 maps that make planning easier
- 160+ pre-selected locations
- Practical advice
- 300+ photos to help you choose
The Archiepiscopal Palace
First floor rooms
We’ve already talked about the Historial’s innovative visitor itinerary, and now we need to remind you that it takes place in a beautiful setting: the archiepiscopal palace. This palace was built in the 13th century in Gothic style. The initiative came from Guillaume de Flavacourt, bishop and archbishop of Rouen at the time. This forms a whole with the cathedral, the only one still standing in France today. The Historial occupies only a dozen rooms in the palace, as the archbishop’s palace has retained its functions.
As soon as you enter the museum, you’ll see the remains of the great hall, known as the “Officialité”. Built in the 13th century, it was in this room that Joan of Arc’s sentences of condemnation and rehabilitation were pronounced during her 2 trials. Today, all that remains is the north gable and the footprint of this space, materialized by the inner courtyard.
You’ll discover the basement rooms, starting with the Romanesque crypt. It dates back to the 12th century, when Archbishop Guillaume Bonne-Ame built an elegant residence. The crypt is the only vestige. You then enter the lovely 13th-century Gothic crypt, a vestige of Guillaume de Flavacourt’s palace.
Back on the first floor, you may be surprised, as we were, to see 2 large fireplaces. That’s normal, because these are the old kitchens! This is the most recent part of the palace, dating back to the 15th century. Guillaume d’Estouteville, Archbishop of Rouen from 1453 to 1483, was at the origin of this project. The adjoining room, the former pantry, also dates from the 15th century. Dishes were prepared and stored here.
Les Combles and the Watchtower
After moving through the crypts and former kitchens of the archiepiscopal palace, we take the Estouteville staircase up to the attic. In the 15th century, this 24-step spiral staircase was the only way to reach the main floor and the Salle des Etats.
We were delighted to be able to sit in the attic after our tiring ascent of this beautiful staircase. The grand comble was created when the Salle des Etats was raised by half a storey in the 18th century. This accentuated its ceiling height, in keeping with the architectural fashion of the time. The small attic also dates from the 18th century.
After this well-deserved break, we climbed up to the Watchtower. This Gothic tower is a vestige of Guillaume de Flavacourt’s palace. At the top, it offers a splendid panoramic view over the roofs of Rouen and the cathedral. We enjoyed it! The orientation table helped us spot our favorite monuments in the Normandy capital.
Our favorite view was of Rouen Cathedral, but we also really enjoyed the view of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen!
The State Hall
On his arrival as the new archbishop, Guillaume d’Estouville decided to demolish the former archbishop’s residence and rebuild it. As we have already seen, he was responsible for the kitchens, the spiral staircase and a large audience and ceremonial room. It’s known as the Salle des Etats (State Hall) because it was the venue for the States of Normandy during the Ancien Régime. In other words, the clergy, nobility and Third Estate met here to vote on taxes and pass on the King’s grievances. When it was enlarged in the 18th century, it was completely restored.
This room is now open to the public, except in exceptional cases. At the time of our visit, it was unfortunately closed for ceremonies.
La Chapelle d’Aubigné
The visit to the Historial – Musée Jeanne d’Arc ends in a magnificent space: the Chapelle d’Aubigné. This chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary was built in the early 18th century. This was done at the request of the archbishop of the time, Monseigneur Claude-Maur d’Aubigné. To achieve this, he had the 13th-century episcopal chapel demolished. The Chapelle d’Aubigné now stands above the Gothic crypt. We particularly liked this light-filled space, with its eight large windows. With its paving and classical, elegant decoration, this is the most precious part of the palace.
PLAN YOUR TRIP TO Normandy
Inspiration destinations
- Deciding where to go in Normandy – the best destinations
- Our weekend ideas: best-of, romantic, unusual, seaside, luxury, family
- 16 seaside hotels in Normandy
- The most beautiful charming hotels in Normandy
Best of
Practice
- Where to stay in Normandy – best places and hotels
- See our tips for renting a car at CDG airport, Orly airport, Beauvais airport, Caen, Rouen, Bayeux…
Not to be missed nearby
Many monuments and museums are located close to the Historial – Musée Jeanne d’Arc:
- Château de Rouen and Tour Jeanne d’Arc: this keep is the only vestige of Rouen castle, built in the 13th century.
- Notre-Dame de Rouen Cathedral: France’s tallest cathedral, with an impressive façade!(see our dedicated article).
- The Gros-Horloge: a 14th-century clock emblematic of Rouen! (see our dedicated article coming soon).
- The Musée des Beaux-Arts: one of our favorite museums in Rouen!(see our dedicated article).
- Abbatiale Saint-Ouen – Rouen: all that remains of this former 16th-century Benedictine monastery is its church.
- Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Rouen: (see our dedicated article coming soon).
- Musée Maritime, fluvial et portuaire: traces the history of the port of Rouen (see our dedicated article).
- Musée Flaubert et d’histoire de la médecine: located in the house where Flaubert was born, this museum displays objects that once belonged to him (see our dedicated article soon).
- Musée Le Secq des Tournelles: a museum dedicated to ironwork in a disused church!(see our dedicated article).
All our tips in this article were put into words with the help of Fanny.
