Saint Etienne: Guide

Saint-Étienne is a city in the central eastern part of département. It is situated in the Massif Central.

"Saint-Étienne" is the French version of Saint Stephen.

Geography

The town is situated on the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon through the Massif Central.

History

In the 16th century, Saint-Étienne possessed an arms factory, and it was this industry which accounted for the town's importance, though it engaged also in the manufacture of ribbons and passementerie from the 17th century (Saint-Étienne was renamed Armeville ("Arms town") during the French revolution because of this activity). Later still it became a coal-mining centre and more recently has been known for the manufacture of cycles. Saint-Étienne was the seat of a post office in 1825 and in 1832, and a relay station in 1832. It did not really develop to any degree until the 19th century.

In the first half of the 19th century, it was only a chief town of an arrondissement in the département of the Loire, with a population in 1832 numbering 19,672 in the east canton and 13,392. Concentration of industry locally prompted these numbers to rise rapidly to 110,000 by about 1880. It was this growing importance of Saint-Étienne that led to its being made seat of the prefecture and the departmental administration on 25 July 1855, Saint-Étienne became the chief town in the département and seat of the prefect, usurping the position which had hitherto belonged to Montbrison, Loire|Montbrison. This latter was reduced to the status of a chief town of an arrondissement. Saint-Étienne had absorbed the commune of Valbenoîte and several other neighbouring localities on 31 March 1855.

In summer 2005 the Tour de France passed through St. Etienne. Lance Armstrong won the time trial (contre-la-montre) stage, his only stage win of his 7th and final Tour win.

Demographics

Population of the city (Commune in France|commune) at the 1999 census was 180,210 inhabitants (177,300 inhabitants as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area (in French: aire urbaine) at the 1999 census was 321,703 inhabitants.

Inhabitants of Saint-Étienne are called stéphanois in French. They are named so because "Etienne" is French equivalent of the Greek Stephanos, (Stephen in English) the patron of happy people and "stephanos" means "happy" in the ancient greek language.

The Church in Saint-Étienne

Before the French Revolution the town comprised only two parishes: Saint-Étienne (or the mother church, thirteenth century) and Notre-Dame (seventeenth century). After the Revolutionary terror, three chapels of ease were set up: Saint-Louis and Saint-Ennemond, which had a priest in charge from February 1803, and Saint-Marie whose church, under the old regime, had been that of the convent of the same name. All the other parishes in the town are later than 1840, with the exception of Valbenoîte. A significant event in the history of the Church in Saint-Étienne was the mission that was preached there from 25 March to 21 May 1821 by the diocesan missioners of Lyons, lead by the abbé Jean-Marie Mioland, and including the abbé Ferdinand Donnet. This mission made a considerable stir and was the subject of an article in the newspaper L'Ami de la Religion (t. 28, 106-107) as well as of a satirical poem in local dialect.

The Saint-Étienne diocese was erected only in the 1970, formed by the arrondissements of Saint-Étienne and Montbrison, Loire|Montbrison, constituting thus the greater part of the department of the Loire. Hitherto the entire Loire had been part of the Lyon diocese since 1801. There were consequently no united and no significant obsolete jurisdictions nor any diocese resulting from the system set up by the 1790 Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

Miscellaneous

The AS Saint-Étienne|Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne is a football (soccer)|football club based in this area.

St. Étienne used to be the capital of the French bicycle industry. A major bicycle wheel manufacturer Mavic is based in the city, and at some point frame manufacturers such as Motobécane and Vitus were also based here. The city often hosts a stage of the Tour de France.

The city is home to three museums, of which the Musee d'Art Moderne, has one of the finest collections of Modern Art in the world. It is surpassed only by the equivalent museum in Paris and New York's MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in terms of content. The other museums are Musee de la Mine, and Musee des Ponts et Chaussees.

Saint-Étienne is notable also for its Tramway de Saint Etienne|tramway. During the , all other French cities got rid of their tramways, only Saint-Étienne kept its system. This went full circle as gradually many French cities began to realise the benefits and reinstall their networks, whilst Saint-Étienne simply bought new trams and helped other cities with its experience.

Colleges and universities

(EMSE or ENSMSE)
École nationale d'ingénieurs de Saint-Étienne (ENISE)
(ISTASE)

Births

Saint-Étienne was the birthplace of:
Claude Charles Fauriel|Claude Fauriel (1772-1844), historian, philologist and critic.
Saint Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840), a Catholic priest and founding members of the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers) who founded the Marist Brothers and was canonised in 1999.
Jules Janin (1804-1874), writer and critic.
Francis Garnier (1839-1873), officer and explorer who explored the Mekong River, much to the surprise of the inhabitants.
Paul de Vivie, aka Velocio (1853-1930) publisher of Le Cycliste, early champion of the dérailleur and father of French cycle touring.
Bernard Lavilliers (b. 1946) (Bernard Ouillon), singer.
Willy Sagnol (b. 1977) French International Soccer Player
Muriel Robin French Humoristic

It was also the place where Andrei Kivilev died.

Twin towns