Chamalières

For the commune in the Haute-Loire department, see Chamalières-sur-Loire.
Chamalières

Town hall
Chamalières

Coordinates: 45°46′28″N 3°04′04″E / 45.7744°N 3.0678°E / 45.7744; 3.0678Coordinates: 45°46′28″N 3°04′04″E / 45.7744°N 3.0678°E / 45.7744; 3.0678
Country France
Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department Puy-de-Dôme
Arrondissement Clermont-Ferrand
Canton Chamalières
Intercommunality Clermont
Government
  Mayor (2014–2020) Louis Giscard d'Estaing
Area1 3.77 km2 (1.46 sq mi)
Population (2006)2 18,300
  Density 4,900/km2 (13,000/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 63075 / 63400
Elevation 385–582 m (1,263–1,909 ft)
(avg. 415 m or 1,362 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.

Chamalières (Auvergnat: Chamalèira) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France.

Chamalières is the third-largest town in the department and lies about 150 miles (241 km) from Lyon.

History

Several thousand wooden Gallo-Roman ex-votos, most of them anthropomorphic standing figures, also including images of limbs and internal organs, dated by associated coins to the first century, were recovered from the shrine at the mineral springs known as the Source des Roches ("Rock Spring"). An inscribed lead tablet found at the spring is a major source of information on the Gaulish language. A comparable cache of Gaulish ex-voto were recovered from a sanctuary at the sources of the Seine, sacred to Sequana.[1]

Notable places

Chamalières is the place where the Banque de France located its printing works in 1923, which printed former French franc banknotes, and now prints Euro banknotes.

People

See also

References

  1. Romeuf, A.-M. (1986). "Exvoto en bois de Chamalières (Puy-de-Dôme) et des sources de la Seine: essai de comparaison". Gallia (in French) 44: 65–89.

Further reading

External links

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