[3] Due to its grandeur and intricate design,[3] the monument reflects the revived prosperity of Rouen in the late 15th century, renewing a neglected municipal heritage.

The courthouse in Rouen suffered significant damage during a bombing on August 26, 1944, before the city's liberation, resulting in the near destruction of the central Louis XII-style main building.

On March 3, 1494, the councilors of Rouen decided to construct a large hall at Neuf Marché, now known as the Salle des Procureurs (Prosecutors' room),[3] to serve as a gathering place for merchants.

[2] In 1531, a new staircase on the south bay of the Salle des Procureurs was built by Jean Delarue and Étienne Guiffart,[2] and the eastern half of the northern building was completed around 1550.

This collapse caused the ceiling which displayed Jean Jouvenet's painting The Triumph of Justice, created with his left handdue to paralysis in his right hand, to fall.

[2] To replace the statuary of the Courthouse, which was largely lost during the Revolution,[2] Joseph Brun (1792–1855), the winner of the first Prix de Rome in 1817, was commissioned in 1836 to depict various social classes and personalities in their contemporary attire who played a role in the construction of the building.

The sculptures includes representations of Louis XII, Anne of Brittany, Cardinal d'Amboise, François I, an allegorical figure of Justice, a ploughman, a village woman, a damsel, a lord, a monk, and an artist.

During the Second World War, the entire building was devastated on April 19, 1944, during the bombing known as the "Red Week," causing almost total destruction of the interiors of the west wing in the flamboyant Gothic style.

However, due to a marking error,[12] it was the bombing on August 26, preceding the liberation of the city, that caused the most damage by almost completely destroying the central Louis XII style residential building.

[14] Threatened with collapse, the original staircase, built in 1531 by Jean Delarue and Étienne Guiffart,[2] disappeared in the 1830s, replaced by a neo-Gothic design by Henri Charles Grégoire.

Drawings from 1824 by Richard Parkes Bonington (now housed at the Yale Center for British Art), served as the bases for the restoration project led by architect Lucien Lefort in 1902, sparking controversy known as the "staircase affair.

[14] During this period, the staircases of Henri Charles Grégoire and Lucien Lefort coexisted in an unusual manner, cluttering the western part of the courtyard with their size.

"[14] Paul Selmersheim, responsible for dismantling and rebuilding the choir and transept of the Basilique of Saint-Urbain of Troyes,[15] used his experience to design a vaulted porch with a suspended flight in a Champagne neo-Gothic style.

[18] The central body of the building, which was originally the Royal Palace of 1508, showcases a stylistic evolution with a transitional style between Gothic art and Early Renaissance.

By the late 14th century, the idea of buildings with large openings to the outside had already taken hold, as seen in Guillebert de Mets' description of Jacques Ducy's lavish Parisian residence.

The wall is characterized by multiple levels of ornamentation, with decorative elements covering the surfaces and sometimes overwhelming the sculpture and architectural lines (Butter Tower in Rouen Cathedral).

[23] Influenced by Italian design, the superimposed openings in bays connected by moldings lead to highly ornamented dormer windows, which help organize the facades and anticipate the grid patterns of Early Renaissance exteriors.

[17] Elaborately adorned during this period, they are situated at the base of the roof, forming an intricate clerestory design of arcades and small flying buttresses that connect the gablet to the two flanking pinnacles.

[17] To replace the statues that were mostly lost during the Revolution, Joseph Brun (1792–1855), the winner of the first Prix de Rome in 1817, was tasked with depicting various social classes and personalities who played a role in the construction of the building, starting in 1836.

[2] The sculpted figures include Louis XII, Anne of Brittany, Cardinal d'Amboise, Francis I, an allegory of Justice, a farmer, a villager, a damsel, a lord, a monk, and an artist.

The total reconstruction of this part of the Courthouse seemed inevitable when, in 1830, Arcisse de Caumont's work on Norman architecture was published, followed by the founding of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy.

[3] While it took up the flamboyant elevation of the west wing facing it, it nonetheless constitutes a neo-Gothic pastiche of the architecture of Roger Ango and Roulland Le Roux.

[6] The ground floor houses the Concierge and former prisons, while a large external staircase built in 1904 by Paul Selmersheim[14] provides access to the Salle des Procureurs or the Hall of Lost Steps.

However, its immense vault was restored after the war to its original shape resembling an inverted ship's hull, with the nave consisting of a single flight unsupported by any pillar.

At one end of the hall, a plaster model made in 1834 by David d'Angers serves as the last remnant of the statue of Pierre Corneille that once stood on the central platform of the stone bridge, which was destroyed in 1940.

On the opposite end of the hall are the tombs of Claude Groulard, the first President of the Parliament of Normandy, and Barbe Guiffard, his wife, from the castle of Saint-Aubin-le-Cauf, near Dieppe.

This section of the Courthouse created a jarring contrast with the rest of the monument and was eventually replaced from 1833 to 1836[2] with spacious constructions that harmonized with the style of the other two medieval wings.

Discovered in 1976 under the staircase of the East wing, to the right of the courtyard of honor of the Rouen Courthouse,[24] the Maison Sublime is a rectangular monument measuring 14.14 m by 9.46 m.[25] Dating back to 1100, this house was originally located in the Clos aux Juifs, the medieval quarter of the community.

Discovered in 1976, the Maison Sublime, an important monument of medieval Jewish life in Rouen, faced demolition in July 1982[29] by the Ministry of Justice, its owner.

Despite efforts by various French organizations, including the city of Rouen, two-thirds of the building were destroyed to make way for offices for the Tribunal de Grande Instance and a parking lot in the basement.