Balbigny
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox French commune
|name = Balbigny
|commune status = Commune
|image = Balbigny (Loire, Fr) mairie.JPG
|caption = Town hall
|arrondissement = Roanne
|canton = Le Coteau
|INSEE = 42011
|postal code = 42510
|term = 2020–2026
|intercommunality =
|coordinates = {{coord|45.8192|4.1881|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
|elevation min m = 314
|elevation max m = 482
|area km2 = 16.98
|population = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_total}}
|population date = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_as_of}}
|population footnotes = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_footnotes}}
}}
Balbigny ({{IPA|fr|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 populations
|source = INSEE[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-42011#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE
|percentages = pagr
|align = none
|1968 |2023
|1975 |2314
|1982 |2469
|1990 |2415
|1999 |2616
|2007 |2634
|2012 |2897
|2017 |2965
}}
Twin towns
Balbigny is twinned with:
- {{flagicon|France}} Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{commons category|Balbigny}}
{{Loire communes}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Communes of Loire (department)
{{Loire-geo-stub}}