ROANNE  , a

town of east-central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Loire, on the left bank of the Loire, 54 M . N.W. of Lyons on the Paris-Lyons railway to Moulins . Pop . (1906) 33,981 . The chief buildings are a modern town hall and the church of St Etienne (1835-1843), built in the Flamboyant Gothic style . The lycee occupies the buildings of the old college dating from the early 17th century . A fine bridge of seven arches connects Roanne with the industrial suburb of Le Coteau on the right bank of the river . The town is the seat of a sub-prefect, of tribunals of first instance and of commerce, of a chamber of commerce and a board of trade-arbitration, and has lycees for both sexes . Cotton goods form the staple manufacture, and cotton-spinning is also important . The making of knitted woollen articles gives employment to large numbers of women in the town and district . There are besides extensive engineering works, foundries, dye-works, tanneries, pottery and tile-works and other industrial establishments . As the centre of the Roannais coalfield, Roanne has trade in coal and coke .

It is also the

terminus of the Roanne-Digoin Canal and the real starting-point of the Loire navigation . Roanne (Rodomna, or Roidomna) was an ancient city of the Segusiani and a station on the great Roman road from Lyons to the ocean . In 1447 the lordship of Roannais became the property of the celebrated banker Jacques Cceur, from whom it passed as the result of a law-suit to the family of Gouffier . In their favour the title was raised to the rank of marquisate and in 1566 to the rank of duchy; it became extinct in the first half of the 18th century .