“ There are numerous other industrial establishments (paper mills, iron foundries, brick works, refining furnaces, &c.) .
Vienne was originally the capital of the Allobroges, and became a Roman colony about 47 B.C. under Caesar, who embellished and fortified it. A little later these colonists were expelled by the Allobroges; the exiles then founded the colony of Lyons (Lugdunum) . It was not till the days of Augustus and Tiberius that Vienne regained all its former privileges as a Roman colony. Later it became the capital of the Provincia Viennensis. ”

“ Here is a tower, built in 1349 by Philip of Valois to defend the French bank of the Rhone, as distinguished from the left bank, which, as part of the kingdom of Provence, was dependent on the Holy Roman Empire. This state of things is also recalled by the name of the village, St Romain en Gal, to the N.W. of Ste Colombe.
The Gère supplies the motive power to numerous factories. The most important are those which produce cloth (about 30 factories, turning out daily about 15,000 yds. of cloth) . ”

“ It is in the earliest Romanesque style, and forms a basilica, with tall square piers, reminding one of Lucca, while the two ranges of windows in the aisles, with their coupled marble columns, recall Ravenna from within and the Basse Œuvre of Beauvais from without. The porch is in the earliest Romanesque style. ”