Allier

The department got its name from the name of one of the rivers, the Allie , flowing through its territory.

The Allier Department is part of the Auvergne region and borders the Departments of Cher , Nievre , Saone et Loire , Loire , Puy-de-Dome and Creuze . The area is 7340 km².

The department has three balneological resorts : Bourbon-l'Archambault , Neri-les-Bains and Vichy .

Hydrography

The following rivers flow through the department. In the west - Cher , in the center - Allier and its tributary Sioule , in the east - Loire and its tributary Bebr .

The department includes 3 counties, 19 cantons and 317 communes.

For the most part, the history of the department is the history of the duchy of Bourbon , since the territory of the department corresponds to the territory of the former duchy.

The Department as such is one of 83 departments established on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution, in pursuance of the law of December 22, 1789 , in most of the territory of the former province of Bourbonne.

In 1940, the collaborationist government of Marshal Pétain was located in the city of Vichy , which from then on received the status of suprefecture .

The following sectors of the national economy are represented most clearly in the department - the food sector, the forest industry and furniture production, the chemical industry, metallurgy and metalworking, rubber , mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, and, of course, balneology .

Marked by the legacy of the Dukes de Bourbon , the department of Allier is a country of rivers, forest groves and low mountains. Colorful "bourbon groves", the meanders of Siul or the Tronse forest , all these places are adapted for nature tourism. Thermal resorts, for example, the international resort of Vichy, are considered one of the main sectors of tourist activity in the department.

The carefully preserved nature harbors many ancient chateaux (over 500), Romanesque churches and beautiful dwellings, many of which are inherited from the time of the Bourbons. Regional gastronomic features reflect the rich history of the province and the high quality of food: potato pie , Charolais beef , St. Pursen wines (AOC) ( French Saint-Pourçain ), mustard from Sharru , as well as octagonal pastry Vichy .

The Allier River is one of the few reservoirs in Southern Europe where grayling ( Thymallus thymallus ), ambiguously called ombre des rivières in France, lives in the natural environment ^[1] . This fish is very much appreciated in the gastronomy of France for its delicate and delicate texture ^[2] .

Among the places worth visiting are the following:

• Monuments: Chateau Lapalis ( fr. Château de La Palice ), which has the famous coffered ceilings of the Renaissance, and the castle of Bourbon-l'Archambault , which is the "cradle" of the Bourbons.
• Churches and abbeys: the Moulins Cathedral with the triptych “Our Lady of Glory”, the Priory Church of Saint-Pierre in Suvigny , and the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Vincent in the commune of Chantelle , which for obvious reasons has long been called “Saint-Denis of the Bourbons”.
• Museums: The National Center for Stage Costumes , in Moulins, and the House of Mantin , which has been locked for one hundred years.
• Developing places: Amusement park and Le PAL zoo in Dompierre-sur-Bebr , Paléopolis in Gann , conceived to comprehend the natural sciences and earth sciences through the prism of paleontology .

Three notable cities: the administrative center of the Moulins department with its rich historical heritage of the 15th century, medieval Montlucon , over which the castle of the Dukes of Bourbon rises, and the famous resort of Vichy .

• Departments of France
• Cantons of the Department of Allier
• Duchy of Bourbon

• Allie Prefecture Site
• General Council website Allier
• Allier Department of Tourism
• Map and history of the department as of 1883