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.

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  580
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  533
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  474
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  472
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  433
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  427
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  341
• Eurasian Blackcap

  Sylvia atricapilla (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  333

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2008-08-18
  7 km W of Langeac, France
• M 2.8 — 2008-05-04
  6 km NE of Brioude, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-04-23
  5 km NNE of Manzat, France
• M 2.9 — 2008-03-12
  6 km WSW of Ébreuil, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-03-12
  4 km SW of Ébreuil, France
• M 3 — 2008-01-05
  2 km N of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, France