Saint-Maclou Church

Saint-Maclou Church was built by wealthy merchant-draper families, particularly the Dufour dynasty, who funded the construction between 1437 and 1517. This private patronage during the Hundred Years' War resulted in one of France's finest examples of 'merchant Gothic' architecture, where commercial wealth created a masterpiece rivaling royal cathedrals.

The church's unique five-porched curved entrance portal is extremely rare in Gothic architecture. The Renaissance wooden doors depicting the Last Judgment were carved by master woodcarvers (huchiers) and are considered among the finest woodwork in all of Normandy, having survived both religious wars and WWII bombing.

During World War II, the original 15th-century stained glass windows were carefully removed and hidden before the 1944 Allied bombing that devastated the church. This foresight saved these irreplaceable medieval treasures, though the 19th-century replacement windows were destroyed. Today's stunning Tree of Jesse window dates back to the original 15th-century glass.

The adjacent Aitre Saint-Maclou is one of Europe's only surviving medieval plague cemeteries, built after the Black Death of 1348 killed an estimated three-quarters of the parish population. Its wooden galleries are decorated with macabre carvings of skulls, crossbones, and gravedigger tools - a haunting reminder of medieval mortality that makes it Rouen's second-most visited monument after the cathedral.