Saint-Galmier () is a city in eastern France. It is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

, and belongs to the arrondissement of Montbrison. Saint-Galmier covers an area of 19.5 square kilometers. As of January 1, 2018, it had a population of 5,737, ranking 1,903th among French communes. Saint-Galmier, located on the river Coise, south-central

, is a regional central city known for the mineral water

Badoit Badoit is a brand of carbonated mineral water from Saint-Galmier, France. History Badoit is named after Auguste Badoit, who began bottling the water of Saint Galmier in 1838. In 1971, Badoit became part of Evian SA, which later became a fully ...

produced there.

Place name

The name of Saint-Galmier is from the Catholic saint Galmier or Baldomerus, who was a monk at the

Basilica of Saint Justus The Basilica of Saint-Just also known as Saint-Just basilica or the Maccabees Basilica was one of the oldest and most powerful churches in the city of Lyon until it was destroyed during the French Wars of Religion. It was then rebuilt under the sa ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. During the French Revolution, Saint-Galmier was renamed Fontfortville by the revolutionaries because of his religious color, where "Fontfort" means "stable fountain".

Geography

Saint-Galmier is located in southeastern France, west-central Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and east-central Loire, about 22 kilometers from the prefecture

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

. Towns bordering Saint-Galmier include Bellegarde-en-Forez, Chambœuf,

Chazelles-sur-Lyon Chazelles-sur-Lyon (, literally ''Chazelles on Lyon'') is a commune in the Loire department in central France. Population See also *Communes of the Loire department The following is a list of the 323 communes of the Loire department of Fr ...

, Cuzieu and Saint-Médard-en-Forez.

Terrain

Saint-Galmier is located in the western foothills of Mount Lyonnais. The center of the town is located in a valley, with a relatively flat terrain, with an elevation of 357 to 551 meters.

River

The river Coise, a right tributary of the

, flows from east to west through the town.

Plant

Saint-Galmier belongs to the temperate deciduous forest area, which is mainly distributed on both sides of the Coise River and around the city area. Saint-Galmier was rated as a 4-star (highest) flower city in the evaluation of the flower city.

Climate

Saint-Galmier belongs to the temperate marine climate in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

. The nearest weather station to Saint-Galmier is located in

Andrézieux-Bouthéon Andrézieux-Bouthéon (; frp, link=no, Andrèsiô-Botion) is a commune of the Loire department in central France. It lies on the right bank of the river Loire, at its confluence with the river Furan. Population Sights * Le Château Bouthéon ...

. The following is the data of the station:

Administrative divisions

Saint-Galmier is a commune (

INSEE code The INSEE code is a numerical indexing code used by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) to identify various entities, including communes and ''départements''. They are also used as national identification ...

42222) in the

department and

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ARA; ; frp, Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Ârpes; oc, Auvèrnhe Ròse Aups; it, Alvernia-Rodano-Alpi) is a region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Au ...

region. It is part of the arrondissement of Montbrison, the canton of Andrézieux-Bouthéon, the

Saint-Étienne Métropole Saint-Étienne Métropole is the ''métropole'', an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Saint-Étienne. It is located in the Loire department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, central France. It was created in January 2018, replaci ...

, and of Loire's 6th constituency. According to the national statistics office INSEE, Saint-Galmier is part of the

functional urban area The larger urban zone (LUZ), or functional urban area (FUA), is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan and surrounding areas which may or may not be exclusively urban. It consists of a city and its commuting zone outside it. Th ...

(''aire d'attraction des villes'') of Saint-Étienne, which consists of 105 communes. INSEE also divides the town of Saint-Galmier into two "blocks" (IRIS) to facilitate the statistics of population distribution.

Population

In 2018, the commune of Saint-Galmier had a population of 5,737, ranking 1,903th in France. Of these, 2,782 are men and 2,940 are women, 9.0% are aged 75 and above. The number of foreigners is 1,061, with a population density of 295 per square kilometer. The local population is called Baldomériens (male) or Baldomérienne(female). In 2019, 49 people were born and 91 people died in Saint-Galmier.

Politics

The current mayor of Saint-Galmier is Philippe Denis, a centrist who received 60.11% of the support rate in the 2020 municipal elections. In the 2017 French presidential election, French 25th President Emmanuel Macron received 66.29% of the support rate in Saint-Galmier.

Water

Saint Galmier is a spa town and the source of

mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may usually be still or sparkling (carbonated/effervescent) according to the presence or absence of added gases. Tra ...

. The thermal spring was known of in

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...

times, but its fame increased with the general growth in interest in thermal cures in Europe during the nineteenth century. Before Auguste Badoit commercialised the water in the 1830s, both the water and the spring from which it emerged, were known as "Fontfort". For this reason, during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

ary period, the town was briefly known as "Fontfortville".

Personalities

* Gilbert Bostsarron, a member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

was born here. *

Roger Rivière Roger Rivière (23 February 1936, Saint-Étienne – 1 April 1976, Saint-Galmier) was a French track and road bicycle racer. He raced as a professional from 1957 to 1960. Rivière, a time trialist, all-around talent on the road, and a three-ti ...

, a professional cyclist, who was born in Saint-Etienne in 1936, died here in 1976.