Balbigny

Balbigny
The town hall in Balbigny
Balbigny
Location within Rhône-Alpes region Balbigny
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Loire
Arrondissement	Roanne
Canton	Néronde
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)
INSEE/Postal code	42011 / 42510
Elevation	314–482 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. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Balbigny 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
Year	Pop.	±%
1962	1,840	—
1968	2,023	+9.9%
1975	2,314	+14.4%
1982	2,469	+6.7%
1990	2,415	−2.2%
1999	2,616	+8.3%
2006	2,546	−2.7%
2009	2,809	+10.3%

Twin towns

Balbigny is twinned with:

• Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France

See also

• Communes of the Loire department

References

• INSEE statistics