Labalme
| Labalme | ||
|---|---|---|
|
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| region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | |
| Department | Ain | |
| Arrondissement | Nantua | |
| Canton | Pont d'Ain | |
| Community association | Rives de l'Ain-Pays du Cerdon | |
| Coordinates | 46 ° 6 ' N , 5 ° 29' E | |
| height | 473-999 m | |
| surface | 8.80 km 2 | |
| Residents | 210 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 24 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 01450 | |
| INSEE code | 01200 | |
Labalme is a French municipality with 210 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the Ain department in the region of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes . It is assigned to the canton of Pont-d'Ain in the Arrondissement of Nantua .
geography
Labalme is located at 586 m in the Bugey in the southern French Jura Mountains , about 23 kilometers southeast of the prefecture of Bourg-en-Bresse and 53 kilometers west-southwest of the city of Geneva (as the crow flies). The area of the 8.80 km 2 municipal area comprises part of a ridge ( anticline ) between the valley of the river Ain and the syncline valley of the rivers Oignin and Borrey . The ridge itself has a distinctive relief structure. At the south-western boundary of the municipality, the edge of the precipice begins in the 300 m deep gorge of Cerdon , a typical Reculée formation in the Jura Mountains. To the east, the mountain ranges of the Montagne d'Oisselaz and Chaîne de l'Avocat, which are split in two by the Col du Sappel, border the municipality. The Chaîne de l'Avocat in particular rises steeply, so that the municipality reaches its highest point there. Due to the porous calcareous subsoil, the rainwater seeps away quickly and there are no surface rivers.
Apart from the village of Labalme, there are no other hamlets or farms in the municipality. Neighboring municipalities of Labalme are Ceignes and Maillat in the north, Vieu-d'Izenave in the east, Cerdon in the south and west and Saint-Alban in the west.
history
During excavations in the nearby caves of Cerdon in 1914 tools and bones from the Neolithic ( Upper Palaeolithic ) came to light . Grave goods from the Hallstatt period were also found on the parish grounds . The origin of the place name from the Celtic, where balma means cave, also indicates the significance of the nearby caves at that time.
In the Middle Ages Labalme formed its own small lordship, which was subordinate to the Lords of Thoire-Villars. This manor, protected by a permanent house , belonged to a de la Balme family from around 1100 to 1536 , and the place was first mentioned in 1164. The Col du Sappel pass was secured with another permanent house, so that the municipality is often notarized as La Balme-Sap (p) el. Towards the end of the 14th century, the municipality came under the sovereignty of the Counts of Savoy , and with the Treaty of Lyons it came to France in 1601.
Attractions
The Grottes du Cerdon , a system of several caves, some of which are connected for visiting purposes, is located on the edge of the Cerdon Gorge and under the municipal floor of Labalme . The caves, which were created in the Quaternary Ice Age by underground rivers and then dried up, were inhabited by people for a long time, as evidenced by large amounts of remains of ash and bones. Between 1933 and 1959, the large, continuously cool cavern was used to ripen cheese. In the early 1980s, a large part of the cave system was made accessible to visitors. With 25,000 visitors per year (as of 2010), the caves are now among the ten most popular attractions in the Ain department.
The Gothic village church in Labalme is from the 15th century.
population
| Population development | |
|---|---|
| year | Residents |
| 1962 | 118 |
| 1968 | 140 |
| 1975 | 117 |
| 1982 | 104 |
| 1990 | 120 |
| 1999 | 135 |
| 2006 | 152 |
| 2011 | 204 |
With 210 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) Labalme is one of the small communities in the Ain department. After the population had decreased somewhat in the first half of the 20th century (in 1901 there were still 248 people), it has been increasing again since the turn of the millennium. The local residents of Labalme are called Balméran (e) s in French .
Economy and Infrastructure
Labalme was an agricultural village well into the 20th century . Today there are no longer any farms directly in the village, and the village has transformed into a residential community whose employees work in the larger towns in the area.
The department road D1084 crosses the village. It connects Nantua with Pont-d'Ain and is also part of the highway connection between Lyon and western Switzerland. The A40 motorway runs north of the municipal border, the nearest connection is 9 kilometers away in Saint-Martin-du-Frêne.
In Labalme there is a state elementary school ( école élémentaire ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Géologie du Bugey chp. 3: Le center du Bugey (PDF; 4.2 MB) by J. Beauchamp (French, accessed February 2014).
- ^ André Buisson: Carte Archéologique de la Gaule - Ain 01 . Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , 1990, ISBN 2-87754-010-3 , pp. 122 (French, limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Ernest Nègre: Toponymie générale de la France . tape 1 . Librairie Droz, 1990, ISBN 978-2-600-02884-4 , pp. 240 (French, limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ É. Philipon: Dictionnaire Topographique du Département de l'Ain . Imprimerie Nationale, 1911, p. 25, 404 (French, online [PDF; accessed January 4, 2014]).
- ^ Marie-Claude Guigue: Topography Historique du Département de l'Ain . Bourg-en-Bresse et Lyon, A. Brun, 1873, p. 20 (French, online [accessed January 18, 2014]).
- ↑ Marc Dazy: 525,000 visiteurs à Ars-sur-Formans: la consécration du tourisme religieux. In: Le Progrès. Retrieved February 7, 2014 (French).
- ↑ French Statistics Institute ( www.insee.fr )
- ↑ Labalme - notice communale. In: cassini.ehess.fr. Retrieved on February 7, 2014 (French, INSEE population from 1968 ).