The former Boulevard Gambetta

From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the city of Rouen, for its security, was surrounded by walls that had become useless over time due to the evolution of artillery and also hindered its expansion. In 1765, the Intendant Thiroux de Crosne undertook the removal of these ramparts and their gates. 20 years later, above the filled-in ditches, boulevards were built around the town.

The construction around 1780 of the boulevard running from the Prés-aux-Loups, near the Seine, to the old Porte Saint-Hilaire, was accompanied by the reorganisation of the district. Unlike the other boulevards, it deviates greatly from the old wall.

Passing close to the saltpetre production workshops, it was first named boulevard de la Nitrière, then "de la Liberté" during the Revolution, then Martainville later on and finally Gambetta at the end of the 19th century. It honours Léon Gambetta (1838-1882), statesman, President of the Council, celebrated for declaring the Republic after the fall of the Second Empire in 1870 and escaping from besieged Paris in a balloon.

In addition to the extension of the district near the Seine, the Martainville barracks was built in 1776, the courtyard of which was closed off by a wall running alongside the Aubette, which was diverted, and the new boulevard. It later became the Joan of Arc barracks and then the headquarters of the Haute-Normandie Region until 2015. Opposite, on the other side of the road, it was completed, five years later, by the Champ-de-Mars, whose marshy ground was raised by more than two metres. As its name suggests, it was used for military exercises.

A number of events took place there:

● In 1784, 6 months before his successful crossing of the English Channel by air, the first of all time, Jean-Pierre Blanchard (link to JP Blanchard) flew to Versailles with his hydrogen balloon. The uncooperative winds took him north of Rouen, far from the direction he had planned. Lost, without maps, the aeronaut lands an hour later 20 km north of Rouen, greeted by peasants armed with guns and pitchforks.

● The proclamation of the Constitution in 1791.

● Various reviews of troops by: General Bonaparte in 1802, Louis-Philippe in 1833 and Napoleon III, then President of the Republic, in 1849.

● The planting in 1848, as elsewhere, of the Tree of Liberty, cut down two days later.

● The holding of several major exhibitions, including the one in 1871, which welcomed nearly 3,000 exhibitors, the last one taking place in 1896 and lasting 5 months.

Going up the boulevard towards Place Saint-Hilaire, there is a meadow abandoned to the city in 1870 by a certain Thuilleau to make a garden of it. It was officially named "Martainville garden" but called "Thuilleau garden" by the inhabitants. A few years later, a kiosk housed a ferruginous water source that was much appreciated by the inhabitants. The square was converted into a sports ground in 1947.

A little further north, the space left free between the boulevard and the old ramparts, along the Hospice General, was used by the latter to install vegetable gardens (link to the gardens) necessary to ensure the subsistence of the boarders and "convalescents". With the extension of the hospital, the gardens disappeared at the end of the 1950s to make way for the paediatric pavilion.

Opposite, the Martainville Station (link to the station), the terminus of the Amiens-Rouen line, was opened in 1867. It was mainly dedicated to freight, as the boulevard was then used by heavy horse-drawn carriages to transport goods between the station and the right bank of the port. The extension of the railways towards the port in 1890 put an end to this traffic.

During a new extension of the Chu in the 1980s, the station was demolished and the boulevard was diverted to its current configuration, thus ensuring better access to the hospital.