Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The River and Port Maritime Museum of Rouen is an association museum founded in 1980 and opened to the public in 1999 on the occasion of the Armada de Rouen. Its mission is to trace the history of the port of Rouen and the navigation, both river and sea, through various exhibitions. The museum houses a rich collection of models of ships of all ages, as well as objects related to port life, such as barge engines, a mist bell, or a whale skeleton lent by Rouen's natural history museum. A houseboat named Pompon-Rouge, accessible in the courtyard, offers an immersion in the shipwork with a dedicated exhibition.

The museum is housed in Hangar 13, built in 1926 and originally called Hangar M until 1966. This place, formerly used by the Schiaffino Company for connections with North Africa, was used for the storage of wine and fruit before being decommissioned in 1984. Since 1999, it has hosted the museum, as well as a traditional naval restoration workshop. The hangar was partially reduced in 2016 to host the Saint-Romain fair, and its doors now adorn frescoes made during the Impressionated Rouen festival.

The topics covered cover historical and technical aspects, such as the destruction of the port during the Second World War, the setting up of the Seine River, or whale hunting. The museum also presents reconstructions, such as the radio booth of a ship from the 1960s or inside Robert Fulton's Nautilus. Temporary exhibitions, on various subjects such as the Vikings or the Rouen ferry bridge, complement the cultural offer.

Among the flagship pieces are the skeleton of a 7-year-old fin whale, as well as the Pompon-Rouge barge, whose hold and wheelhouse are open to visit. The museum also showcases heritage elements such as trawlers' engines, a scaphandrier, and models of cargoes that landed near the hangar. Its location, on the banks of the Seine near the Gustave-Flaubert Bridge, makes it a key place to understand Norman maritime history.

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