Loire
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceLoire (Arpitan: Lêre, Occitan: Léger) is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.
History
Loire was created in 1793 when the original department of Rhône-et-Loire was split.Its capitals have been the following:
- Feurs from 1793-1795
- Montbrison from 1795-1855
- Saint-Étienne since 1855
Geography
Loire is part of the current administrative region of Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Rhône, Isère, Ardèche, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, and Saône-et-Loire.The River Loire traverses the department from south to north.
The Loire department is split into three arrondissements:
Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Ligériens.The industrial city of Saint-Étienne with its suburbs contains some 290,000 of the area's 728,542 inhabitants.
External links
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Last updated on Thursday February 07, 2008 at 10:19:07 PST (GMT -0800)
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