Rouen is not only about Gothic, Impressionism, and Joan of Arc. Rouen, a city with almost two thousand years of history, is modern, dynamic, and not alien to contemporary art. On the Seine embankment, closer to the outskirts, there is an object in the form of a huge cylindrical tank, which makes the hearts of contemporary art lovers beat faster. Panorama as a form of visual art was invented at the end of the 18th century by the Scottish painter Robert Barker. He painted huge canvases depicting nature and placed them on the walls of his rotunda. Getting into the center of the rotunda, the spectators were amazed by the effect of "full presence".

It is interesting to imagine what they would say about the Panorama XXL in Rouen, which is 31 meters high, 101 meters wide and has a 360 ° viewing angle. Opened in summer 2014, the panorama changes its exposition once a year. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have already seen the panorama installations: "Ancient Rome", " Rouen. Joan of Arc Execution Day", "Amazonia", "Great Barrier Reef", "Titanic". The panorama uses the following effects: the most detailed image, amazing clarity, depth of field, light, the change of day and night, and even sound. If you want to see the panorama in all the details, you can use the binoculars placed in the center of a three-story platform. The photographic enlargement and clarity are so great that, for example, viewers of "Amazonia" could see caterpillars on tree trunks. All the panoramic paintings were created by the muralist Yadegar Asisi, a graduate of the Berlin Academy of Arts. He creates each new canvas with the utmost scrupulousness: he traveled to the Amazon forests, sank to the bottom of the ocean, studied the museum collections in Rome. 15 assistants work together with the artist. The most recent panorama, opened in summer 2020, is dedicated to Claude Monet and Rouen Cathedral, depicted in two dozen works of this artist. The panorama takes the viewer to Rouen of the end of the 19th century, to the Impressionist period. It depicts Rouen Cathedral, the square near it, trams, shops, architecture, and people. In the panorama, ordinary citizens mingle with the great artists of that era. By the way, it is the largest contemporary work dedicated to Impressionism.