Saint-Gérand-le-Puy
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The chateau and other buildings in Saint-Gérand-le-Puy
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 Saint-Gérand-le-Puy
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Location within Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region
Saint-Gérand-le-Puy
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| Coordinates: 46°15′31″N 3°30′46″E / 46.2586°N 3.5128°ECoordinates: 46°15′31″N 3°30′46″E / 46.2586°N 3.5128°E | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| Department | Allier |
| Arrondissement | Vichy |
| Canton | Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2014–2020) | Xavier Cadoret |
| Area1 | 19.55 km2 (7.55 sq mi) |
| Population (2013)2 | 1,023 |
| • Density | 52/km2 (140/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 03235 /03150 |
| Elevation | 268–359 m (879–1,178 ft) (avg. 325 m or 1,066 ft) |
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1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. |
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1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
Saint-Gérand-le-Puy is a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France.
Much of the local rock is limestone common in the Auvergne, known as indusial, because of the cases, or indusiae, of the larvæ of Phryganea (resembling caddis-flies), which have been encrusted, as they lay, by hard travertine (a white or light-coloured concretionary limestone, usually hard and semi-crystalline, deposited from water holding lime in solution).
The area is rich in fossils, notably birds from the Miocene era. See, for example, Cheneval J (1984), Les oiseaux aquatiques (Gaviiformes à Ansériformes) du gisement aquitanien de Saint-Gérand-le-Puy (Allier} (The aquatic birds (Galliformes to Anseriformes) of the aquitanian deposits of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy (Allier}.
A Roman road runs by the town. It was a fortified village in the Middle Ages, deriving strategic importance from its location on the route from Moulins to Lyon.
The town was a stop on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela - a local cross marking the way is shown at [1].
It belonged to the seigneurie of Montluçon at the beginning of the 13th century but when the le Bourbonnais (part of the Massif Central essentially co-terminous with the modern Allier) became a Duchy in 1327 it passed into of the hands of the Bourbons.
During the French Revolution it was known as Puy-Redan. In 1832, Saint-Etienne-de-Ciernat and Saint-Etienne-du-Bas were joined to the commune and, in 1833, Saint-Allyre-de-Valence followed.
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Wikipedia