What link is there between the Rouen restaurant “L’Aumale” and the town of the same name?

It was while walking around Place de la Pucelle, in Rouen, that we were surprised to discover “ L’Aumale”, bistronomic restaurant near the emblematic Bourgtheroulde Hotel. What is the link with the commune of Aumale (Seine-Maritime?

Commendatory Abbot of Aumale

To find out the answer, we must go back to the history of the construction of this 16th century building, now classified as a Historic Monument. Guillaume II Le Rouxlord of Bourgtheroulde and Norman magistrate, decided to build it to make a private mansion.

Died in 1520 before the end of construction, it was his son, Guillaume III Le Rouxwho continued his father’s work. The latter, in addition to being lord of Bourgtheroulde like his ancestor, is also Commendatory Abbot of Aumale at Auchy Abbey between 1517 and 1532, the date of his death. It would therefore be him who completed the work on the hotel.

Among other things, he initiated the “Aumale Gallery”present in the courtyard of the hotel. This fresco represents theCloth of Gold Camp interviewhistoric meeting between Francis I and Henry VIII of England in 1520.

Jacques Tanguy, Rouen historian, speaks of the Galerie d’Aumale as the ” most spectacular part of the hotel » with its still very well preserved engravings. A choice which therefore seems logical for the name of the hotel’s bistronomic restaurant.

In Aumale, Guillaume III Le Roux was at the origin of the expansion of Auchy Abbey, and in particular the great door of the abbey“one of the masterpieces of brilliant Renaissance architecture” according to Ernest Semichon in his book “History of the City of Aumale and its institutions from ancient times to the present day”, published in 1862.

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