Balbigny
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
Year | Pop. | ±% 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 |
Twin towns
Balbigny is twinned with:
Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France
See also
References
- ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020.
- ^ "Populations légales 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
- ^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
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