Roanne

Roanne grew beside the Loire, where routes between the Lyon region and central France met the river. Its medieval castle guarded the town, and the church of Saint-Étienne developed nearby. The lower town around the port expanded in the seventeenth century as boatmen and other workers served river traffic. Boats known as rambertes and sapines carried cargoes including coal and wine downstream toward Paris, although the Loire's uneven flow made navigation seasonal. The town also had a weaving tradition that grew in the early nineteenth century. In 1817 Sébastien Mulsant acquired land for small buildings in which families of weavers worked for him. A canal from Roanne to Digoin was decided upon in 1827 to improve transport, although it did not open until 1838, just beyond the period described here. River commerce and textile work connected the town to markets far beyond its immediate countryside.