Balbigny
Commune
Town hall
Town hall
Location of Balbigny
Balbigny is located in France
Balbigny
Balbigny
Balbigny is located in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Balbigny
Balbigny
Coordinates: 45°49′09″N 4°11′17″E / 45.8192°N 4.1881°E / 45.8192; 4.1881
CountryFrance
RegionAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes
DepartmentLoire
ArrondissementRoanne
CantonLe Coteau
Government
  Mayor (20202026) Gilles Dupin[1]
Area
1
16.98 km2 (6.56 sq mi)
Population
 (Jan. 2021)[2]
2,848
  Density170/km2 (430/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
  Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
42011 /42510
Elevation314–482 m (1,030–1,581 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Balbigny (French pronunciation: [balbiɲi]) is a commune in the Loire department in central France.

History

Balbigny owes its name to a Roman general named Balbinius who based himself here in order to conduct a war. Nothing survives from this period. The earliest identified traces of Balbigny date from 1090.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, before the Loire was channelled, Balbigny was a village of boatmen, known for flat bottomed boats known as Rambertes which were used to transport the coal mined at Saint-Étienne. The loaded Rambertes arrived from Saint-Rambert and stopped off at Balbigny where the boat crews were changed, taking the boats to the next change-over point at Roanne. All this changed in August 1832 with the arrival of the third oldest railway line in France which connected Andrézieux-Bouthéon with Roanne, passing Balbigny en route. An extension of the rail network in 1913 saw Balbigny connected with Saint-Germain-Laval and Régny. The coal was therefore transported by rail, but the railway also gave farmers in the district access to a wider range of markets for their produce.

The road bridge crossing the Loire was destroyed in 1940 in order to hold back advancing German troops, and a ferry service was introduced to permit the river to be crossed. The bridge was rebuilt in 1950.

Population

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1968 2,023    
1975 2,314+1.94%
1982 2,469+0.93%
1990 2,415−0.28%
1999 2,616+0.89%
2007 2,634+0.09%
2012 2,897+1.92%
2017 2,965+0.47%
Source: INSEE[3]

Twin towns

Balbigny is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020.
  2. "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
  3. Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.