Anglefort () is a commune in the

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, ...

Ain Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where ...

in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Geography

Anglefort is a commune in

Bugey The Bugey (, ; Arpitan: ''Bugê'') is a historical region in the department of Ain, eastern France, located between Lyon and Geneva. It is located in a loop of the Rhône River in the southeast of the department. It includes the foothills of th ...

on the right bank of the Rhone at the foot of the mountain of Grand Colombier which has a panorama of the Alps and the

Jura mountains The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Fre ...

. The commune is located 25 km south of

Bellegarde-sur-Valserine Bellegarde-sur-Valserine (, literally ''Bellegarde on Valserine''; frp, Bèlagouârda) is a former commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 11,326. On 1 January 201 ...

and 30 km north by north-west of

Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie.

. Access to the commune is by road D992 from

Seyssel Seyssel is the name of two communes in France: * Seyssel, Ain, in the Ain ''département'' * Seyssel, Haute-Savoie, in the Haute-Savoie ''département'' Seyssel may also refer to: * Seyssel AOC, a wine AOC * Claude de Seyssel, a Savoyard jurist an ...

in the north passing through the length of the commune and the village to

Culoz Culoz ( or ) is a former commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. On 1 January 2023, it was merged into the new commune of Culoz-Béon. Geography The town, which is situated on the right bank of the River R ...

in the south. There is also access on road D120 which is a highly circuitous route from

Lochieu Lochieu () is a former commune in the Ain department in eastern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Arvière-en-Valromey.

in the west continuing to the village as the D120A and continuing south through the

Col du Grand Colombier Col du Grand Colombier (el. ) is a mountain pass in the Jura mountains in France. This pass lies at the southern extremity of the Jura in the massif of the Grand Colombier. With the Col du Chasseral, it is the highest road pass in the Jura. It pa ...

(1,501m) to Culoz. A railway line passes through the commune from north to south with a station to the east of the village.Google Maps
/ref> The

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

river runs south along the eastern border of the commune and Le Verdet stream flows from the north to the south of the commune into the Rhone.

Environment

The alluvial aquifer fed by the Rhone is threatened by an internal discharge created by the

Pechiney Pechiney SA was a major aluminium conglomerate based in France. The company was acquired in 2003 by the Alcan Corporation, headquartered in Canada. In 2007, Alcan itself was taken over by mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan. Prior to its acquisition ...

Group. Foundry waste, metal dust, and recovered acid from filters have been buried in the Chautagnard marsh with a probable contamination by

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as metals with relatively high density, densities, atomi ...

and

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, bu ...

.Note by the Robin Hood NGO called ''The casseroles of Pechiney''
dated 6 October 2003

History

The Priory of Anglefort was located on the communal territory in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. In 1590 Guillaume Drujon was a priest and he became abbot in 1620.

Administration

List of mayors of Anglefort

Population

Economy

The

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in ...

(EDF) Dam is on the Rhone river in the territory of the commune and there is a factory producing silicon. Formerly the property of the Pechiney Electro-metallurgy group, the factory has passed successively into the hands of Alcan (Canada), and the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto at the whim of successive buy-backs of this former French industrial flagship.

Sights

*Two sites are registered as historical monuments in the commune: **The old Chateau of Anglefort (18th century) formerly the seat of the Lordship of Anglefort and rebuilt in 1741. **The Chateau of Mieugy ParkMinistry of Culture, Mérimée * The remains of the Chateau de la Rochette which dominates the Rhone was the seat of the Lordship of Rochette, mentioned in 1407.

Personalities

* Monseigneur Jacques-François Besson, born in Mieugy,

Bishop of Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est r ...

from 1824 to 1842