Chamalières

For the commune in the Haute-Loire department, see Chamalières-sur-Loire.

Chamalières (French pronunciation: [ʃamaljɛʁ]; Auvergnat: Chamaleiras) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, central France.^[3]

Chamalières
Commune
Town hall
Coat of arms
Location of Chamalières
Chamalières Show map of France Chamalières Show map of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Coordinates: 45°46′28″N 3°04′04″E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Puy-de-Dôme
Arrondissement	Clermont-Ferrand
Canton	Chamalières
Intercommunality	Clermont Auvergne Métropole
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Louis Giscard d'Estaing[1]
Area 1	3.77 km2 (1.46 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[2]	17,591
• Density	4,700/km2 (12,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	63075 /63400
Elevation	385–582 m (1,263–1,909 ft) (avg. 415 m or 1,362 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

With 17,276 inhabitants (2019), Chamalières is the fourth-largest town in the department.^[4] It lies adjacent to the west of Clermont-Ferrand and about 241 kilometres (150 mi) from Lyon.

History

Several thousand wooden Gallo-Roman ex-votos, most of them anthropomorphic standing figures, also including images of limbs and internal organs, dated by associated coins to the first century, were recovered from the shrine at the mineral springs known as the Source des Roches ("Rock Spring"). An inscribed lead tablet found at the spring is a major source of information on the Gaulish language. A comparable cache of Gaulish ex-voto were recovered from a sanctuary at the sources of the Seine, sacred to Sequana.^[5]

Population

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	17,775	—
1975	18,075	+0.24%
1982	17,486	−0.47%
1990	17,301	−0.13%
1999	18,136	+0.53%
2007	17,710	−0.30%
2012	17,480	−0.26%
2017	17,173	−0.35%
Source: INSEE[6]

Notable places

Chamalières is the place where the Banque de France located its printing works in 1923, which printed former French franc banknotes, and now prints Euro and CFA franc banknotes.

People

• Raoul Lufbery (1885–1918), French-American fighter pilot and flying ace in World War I.
• Pierre Schoendoerffer (1928–2012), French film director.
• Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1926-2020), French politician, President of France (1974-1981), mayor of Chamalières (1967-1974).
• Claude Giraud (born 1936), French stage and film actor; voice over actor for Robert Redford, Tommy Lee Jones, Alain Rickman.
• Renaud Camus (born 1946), French author and essayist.
• Daniel Vernet (c. 1945–2018), former editor-in-chief of Le Monde.^[7]
• Pierre Woodman ( born Pierre André Gerbier ín 29.April 1963 ) famous multiawarded porn director
• Oumine Ouahioune ( born Oumine Hassan Yusif Pontoise Ouahioune [born 1973] retired soccer player Centre-back.

See also

• Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department