Roanne (rôän'), town (1990 pop. 42,848), Loire dept., E central France, on the Loire River. Cotton and metals are the chief products; other industries include tanning, machine and vehicle manufacturing, and the spinning of artificial silk. Roanne (then Rodumna) was a crossroads in Gallo-Roman times and was mentioned in ancient geography by Ptolemy. The Joseph-Dechelette Museum, noted for its ancient artifacts, is located in the town. Roanne also has several ruins from the Roman period, as well as remnants of a medieval château and several 15th- and 16th-century houses.
Roanne
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Coordinates: 46°02′12″N 4°04′08″E / 46.0366666667°N 4.06888888889°E
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Commune of Roanne |
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| Coat of arms | ||
| Location | ||
  Roanne
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| Administration | ||
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| Country | France | |
| Region | Rhône-Alpes | |
| Department | Loire | |
| Arrondissement | Roanne | |
| Intercommunality | Grand Roanne | |
| Mayor | Laure Déroche | |
| Statistics | ||
| Elevation | 257–304 m (840–1,000 ft) (avg. 279 m/920 ft) |
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| Land area1 | 16.12 km2 (6.22 sq mi) | |
| Population2 | 34,800 (2006) | |
| - Density | 2,159 /km2 (5,590 /sq mi) | |
| Miscellaneous | ||
| INSEE/Postal code | 42187/ 42300 | |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | ||
| 2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | ||
Roanne (Rouana in Arpitan) is a commune in the Loire department in central France.
It is located 90 km (56 mi) northwest of Lyon on the Loire River.
Contents |
Economy
Roanne is known for gastronomy (largely because of the famous Troisgros family), textiles, agriculture and manufacturing tanks.
Gastronomy
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009) |
The Ecole des Trois Ponts, headed by René Dorel,[citation needed] is situated in the Villa Beaulieu in the neighboring community of Riorges, welcoming 200 to 300 foreign guests each year desiring to perfect their culinary talents[opinion needs balancing] and practice their French language skills.[1][2]
History
The toponomy is Gaulish, Rod-Onna ("flowing water") which became Rodumna, then Rouhanne and Roanne. The town was sited at a strategic point, the head of navigation on the Loire, below its narrow gorges. As a trans-shipping point, its importance declined with the collapse of long-distance trade after the fourth century. In the twelfth century, the site passed to the comte du Forez, under whose care it began to recover. An overland route led to Lyon and the Rhône, thus Roanne developed as a transshipping point between Paris and the Mediterranean in early modern France, when waterways were at least as important as roads.
The renewed navigation on the Loire encouraged the export of local products— wines, including casks of Beaujolais that had been shipped overland, ceramics, textiles—and after 1785, coal from Saint-Étienne, which had formerly been onloaded upstream at Saint-Rambert, since river improvements at the beginning of the century. Sturdy goods were rafted downriver on sapinières that were dismantled after use. Half the population of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Roanne depended in some way on this transportation economy: merchants and factors, carriers, carpenters and coopers, master-boatmen and their journeymen and oarsmen, and waterfront laborers (Braudel p360f).
Roanne was one of the first towns served by railroad, with the opening, 15 March 1833, of the terminal on the right bank at the port of Varennes of the third line, from Andrézieux. Following came the opening of the canal from Roanne to Digoin (1838), which placed the city in the forefront of the French Industrial Revolution.
In 1917 the arsenal was established at Roanne, and from 1940 a new industry developed, producing rayon and other new fibers. In the post-industrial phase that set in during the 1970s, Roanne struggled to find new industry and attract tourism.
Notable people
Roanne was the birthplace of:
- Jean-Baptiste Nompère de Champagny (1756-1834) was a French politician
- Pierre Étaix (born 1928), film director
- René Leriche (1870-1955), surgeon
- Jean-Pierre Jeunet (born 1953), film director
- Joseph Dechelette
International Relations
Twin towns - sister cities
Roanne is twinned with:
Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain
Nuneaton and Bedworth, England, United Kingdom
Reutlingen, Germany
Montevarchi, Italy
Piatra Neamţ, Romania[3]
Legnica, Poland
References
- ^ Official web site
- ^ wikipedia france roanne http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanne
- ^ "Piatra Neamţ - Twin Towns". © 2007-2008 Piatra-Neamt.net. http://www.piatra-neamt.net/en/twin_towns.php. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- Braudel, Fernand, 1982. The Wheels of Commerce, vol. II of Civilization and Capitalism p 360.
External links
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 | Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Roanne". Read more |
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- Forez (region, France)
- Côte Roannaises AC (wine-related term)
- Violettes Imperiales (1924 Adventure Film)
- Inventing Cuisine: Michel Troisgros (2007 Leisure Arts Film)
- Nollekens (art)
- Lyonnais (region, former province, France)
- Jean Puy (art)
- Cognasse (1932 Comedy Film)
- Dolly (1929 Comedy Film)
- Nicole Et Sa Vertu (1932 Comedy Film)
- Pierre-Louis Cretey (art)
- Etienne Jeaurat (art)
- Pierre Etaix (Actor, Director, Writer, Comedy)
- Loire (river, France)
