Balbigny
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The town hall in Balbigny
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 Balbigny
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Location within Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region
Balbigny
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| Coordinates: 45°49′09″N 4°11′17″E / 45.8192°N 4.1881°ECoordinates: 45°49′09″N 4°11′17″E / 45.8192°N 4.1881°E | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| Department | Loire |
| Arrondissement | Roanne |
| Canton | Le Coteau |
| Intercommunality | Balbigny |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2008–2014) | Jean-Marc Regny |
| Area1 | 16.98 km2 (6.56 sq mi) |
| Population (2009)2 | 2,809 |
| • Density | 170/km2 (430/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 42011 /42510 |
| Elevation | 314–482 m (1,030–1,581 ft) |
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1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. |
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1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
Balbigny is a commune in the Loire department in central France.
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.
Balbigny is twinned with:
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Wikipedia