Firminy (; ) is a
commune in the
Loire
The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) 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.
It rises in the so ...
department in central
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
It lies on the river
Ondaine, 13 km southwest of
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...
by rail.
History
The ancient name of the town was ''Firminiaco'' or ''Firminiacus'' (lit. "place of Firmin"). The name was first recorded in a 971 charter by the
King of Burgundy
The following is a list of the kings of the two kingdoms of Burgundy, and a number of related political entities devolving from Carolingian machinations over family relations.
Kings of the Burgundians
* Gebicca (late 4th century – c. 40 ...
.
Firminy had historically important
coalmines known since the 14th century and extensive manufactures of
iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
,
steel
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
, and
aluminum
Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
goods, including
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
material, machinery and cannon. Fancy woolen hosiery was also manufactured. In 1959, Firminy absorbed the former commune Chazeau.
Modifications aux circonscriptions territoriales de communes
''Journal officiel de la République française
The ''Official Journal of the French Republic'' (), also known as the ''JORF'' or ''JO'', is the government gazette of the French Republic. It publishes the major legal official information from the national Government of France, the French Pa ...
'' n° 0044, 21 February 1959, pp. 2219-2220.
Population
Sights
Two historic churches from the 12th and 16th centuries are located here. The architect Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
designed a group of modern buildings, called " Firminy Vert", which includes the Saint-Pierre Church, a stadium, a cultural center, and an ''Unité d'Habitation
The ''Unité d'habitation'' (, ''Housing Unit'') is a Modern architecture, modernist residential housing Typology (urban planning and architecture), typology developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afons ...
''.
See also
*Communes of the Loire department
The following is a list of the 320 communes of the Loire department of France.
The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2025):
* Maurice Debesse
References
External links
Official website
Communes of Loire (department)
Forez
{{Loire-geo-stub