Lens Pas De Calais

• Lens ( Belgium ) Hainaut
• Lens ( Switzerland ) Sierre

Environment

Panorama Lens from site Ecople 11/19 at Loos-en-Gohelle.

The town has suffered severe physical and environmental consequences of wars and industrial activity induced by mining. But the redevelopment of brownfields and greening heaps and mining riders have also become an environmental asset, especially with the inclusion of some environments renatured in the green belt of the mining area whose extension is the Park Deule and Greenbelt Lille - LMCU that will decline or complement locally PEEN through the green and blue after the National Round Table on the Environment.

The town which in 2008 had about thirty people for the management of 111 hectares of green space since 2007 has been a process of differentiated management , including two large public parks in sustainable management and 29 spaces in "greening sustainable .

Means of communication

Lens is served by the A21 highway which forms a semi- ring road to the north and east of the town and connects the city to other motorways, the A1 motorway ( Paris - Lille ) and A26 ( Calais - Reims ).

His station is served by six return trips by TGV line TGV-Nord (1 hour 10 minutes from Paris) but also by the lines SNCF 6, 13, 21 and 23 going towards Valenciennes , Arras , Dunkirk , Lille reduced to 30 minutes by Libercourt since 9 December 2007.

Public transport is provided by the company Tadao , under the authority of a joint association which brings together the Lens-Lievin Communaupole , the urban community of Hnin-Carvin , the urban community of Artois and the community and surrounding municipalities Nux. A proposed tramway linking Lievin in Hnin-Beaumont by Lens is intended to replace the line bubble Tadao . In addition, a new bus station was constructed in 2009

The Lesquin airport is the nearest town. Contact Lens, then you can borrow, is the new link TGV starting from the station in Flanders , or taxi via the A1 motorway and the A21. There are also two bus but the journey is approximately 1 hour 20 minutes.

Habitat

With more than 60% of social housing , a legacy of the coal mining town of Lens remains attached to its mining past.

Lens has two urban classified as "sensitive urban zones" and "urban renewal area": the collective of the Grand Residence north (64 ha, 5,400 inhabitants), the Residence Sellier and City just west of Four the train station and downtown (36 ha, 2 800 inhabitants).

The number of dwellings is 16 668, including 15 536 in main residence. 93% of the population is a main residence, 24% own and 64% are tenants (does not include second homes).

In Lens, the average price of real estate on ¹ August 2010 is 1 695 euros per square meter.

History

Heraldry

Blazon Azure castle consists of a tower battled of five gold coins, open and perforated sand, opening a world loaded with gold, tower flanked by two towers of the same open and perforated sand all flanked by two golden lilies.

Foundation

The origin of the town is not completely known, as evidenced by the uncertainty about its place names.

The first explanation was that the name of Lens came from a Roman proconsul called Lentulus , but was dismissed after the discoveries of Roman remains giving no credit to this particular hypothesis. Coins, dating from the Merovingian , testify to the existence of Lenna Case (trum). If the second word means simply that the city was fortified, the first is rather more mysterious: some researchers think it comes from the Gaulish word "onna", meaning river, spring. Lenna case would be the "fortress of sources" .

The Spanish period

It was in 1526 when the rise of Spain in Europe, the city of Lens passed into the hands of the king of Spain and is part of the Spanish Netherlands . It was not until the Grand Cond and the battle of Lens , 20 August 1648 , to see the beginning of the decline in the Spanish region. This battle allowed Mazarin to sign the Treaty of Westphalia , ending the War of Eighty Years. The Artois being restored to France by the Treaty of Peace of the Pyrenees ten years later, 7 November 1659.

The discovery of coal

Industrialists Lille, MM. Casteleyn Tilloy and Scrive , discovered the coal to 151 meters deep in the woods of Lens during surveys in 1849. Decree of 15 January 1853 attributed to the Lens Company a grant of 6.051 ha. Lens gradually imposed itself as a major urban center.

The First World War

The city of Lens, located near the front, has suffered tremendously from the First World War. In October 1914, she knew the invasion and until 1918, the occupation, during which it is a major logistics center for the German army. It was during this period heavily pounded by shells of all calibres, many of which did not explode, which will rebuild dangerous. Before their escape, the occupants will drown and destroy all the mine shafts.

The city's population has decreased by half at the end of the war . She received the Legion of Honour on 30 August 1919 . In 1918 , the city and much of the mineral basin was almost completely razed . It will take many months to clean the debris of unexploded ordnance and to begin reconstruction.

Late 1918, when the first settlers coming back already, the landscape is lunar. Winter is coming and paper and roofing felt missing, as well as food for the people, prisoners and Chinese workers who clean and rebuild the city while the Spanish Flu appears and wreaks havoc, carrying many adults who had escaped death on the front.

The memorial will be built seven years later, on the Place du Cantin, by Augustine Lesinski , stonemason and sculptor in Paris, with the help of the architect Barthelet and skilled workers. It was inaugurated on May 30 in 1925 to approximately 100,000 people and the president of the Chamber of Deputies ( Edouard Herriot ). He paid tribute to minors by a low relief with a gallery of mine in timbering broken and invaded by the waters, as well as workers who return from war, regained tool razed by bombing .

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  Ruin of wooden houses, Lens, 1914

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  Lens 1914

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  Lens 1917

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  Mine destruction (German photo, between 1914 and 1918)

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  Aerial view of 1917 dated

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  The war memorial

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge

The golden age of coal mining and the Second World War

Home Association (2005)

The period after the Great War will see the influence of Lens grow, as well as its demography. This growth is symbolized by the construction of the Great Society Offices mines of Lens in the late 1920s, a building which shows the power of the industrial city .

Lens also had to suffer material damage from the war of 1939-1945 , but to a lesser extent than during the Great War. On the night of 10 to 11 September 1942 , 528 Jews (including 123 women and 288 children) were rounded up with the complicity of the police headquarters , and will be gassed at Auschwitz. Part of the Jewish community was foreign origin Polish and was arrived at Lens in the 1920s, with other Poles having engaged in mining. This had also not been without some degree of xenophobia and antisemitism , especially at the end of the period between the wars , with the creation in July 1938 of a "Provisional Committee of Defense Trade French "denouncing, by posting, coming of a" NEW FLOOD OF JEWISH IMMIGRANTS 300 000 . According to historians N. Mariot and Cl Zac who analyzed the departmental archives of the Pas-de-Calais :

"Despite the exodus of a good half of the community from May 1940 , the census of December 1940 counted 482 people still called "Israelites" in the basin. Less than two years later, that of October 1, 1942 has no more than thirteen . "

The postwar period saw the nationalization of former state owned coal mines with the order of 14 December 1944 the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) led by de Gaulle.

With the war boom , the town expanded further to 42,733 inhabitants in 1962. It is important enough to divide into two the district of Arras , in 1962 and create the Lens which includes its conurbation Lens with mining and other cities in Lievin , Carvin and Henin-Beaumont. It's coalfield which allowed Lens to become an industrial city facing the coal chemical ( Mazingarbe , Drocourt , Vendin-le-Vieil ) and metallurgy (boiler, wire drawing).

Two buildings were then protected historical monuments : the station (in the form of locomotive) recorded in 1984 and a href = "Maison_syndicale_des_mineurs_de_Lens" class = "new" title = "Trade Union House minors Lens (non-existent page)"> Trade Union House Juvenile partially recorded in 1996 ^{Crisis and Conversion}

The streets of Paris known as "pedestrian"

The decline of coal mining, from the years 1960 and total cessation of mining in 1990, led to a serious crisis of conversion. Lens seen for thirty years its population decline, shops and cinemas close and unemployment rise.

Since then the city has diversified its industrial activities around the textile industry, metallurgy, construction, automotive and food industry, and around medical functions (large hospital), commercial (banks, centers calls) and administrative (sub-prefecture, University of Artois).

The city was nevertheless ranked ninth poorest city in France in 2010 by the Journal du Net due to high unemployment (15.21% * of the workforce) and the low income of its residents (10 074.3 euros per year on average). Indeed, more than half of them said tax households under 11 250 euros in revenue per year (income tax reference).

Culture and Heritage

Monuments

• School Louis Pasteur and former clinic in the city No. 11 of the Mining Company of Lens (registration 2009) ;
• Church St. Edward the city No. 12 of the company mines of Lens Lens , front of the church of the City # 12: Presbytery (entry 2009) ;
• Gare de Lens (registration 1984) ;
• Great company offices mines of Lens , current Faculty of Sciences Jean Perrin, 2 route de la Basse: hallway, stairway, ramp support, pavilion, garden, garden wall, interior (enrollment in 2009 ) ;
• School Group John Mace , former director of residential schools and former patronage of the city No. 12 of the company mines of Lens, front of the Church of St. Edward, highway Loos (registration 2009) ;
• Housing for the Sisters of the city No. 12 of the company mines of Lens , 2 front of the Church of St. Edward (enrollment in 2009) ;
• Juvenile home union , Emile-Zola, rue Duquesnoy, rue Casimir-Beugnet: court, film, elevation (registration 1996) ;
• Emile Basly Monument Avenue Alfred-Maes, rue Albert Camus (registration 2009) ;
• Memorial Company mines of Lens , Bethune road, avenue de la Fosse 12: square, cemetery (registration 2009) ;
• Memorial WWI Lens , roundabout Van Pelt (registration 2009) ;
• Room St. Pierre works in the city No. 11 of the company mines of Lens , rue du Saint-Esprit (registration 2009) ;

The Louvre-Lens

On 29 November 2004 , during a visit to Lens, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin announced that the ancient city mining had been chosen to receive the decentralized branch of the Louvre. By the year 2012 , a new building of 18,000 sqm will be built in a landscaped park on 20 hectares of the old tile pit 9/9bis. It will, alternating with the Paris museum 500 to 600 major works as well as temporary exhibitions. Different educational areas will also be built. Organizers hope to accommodate 700,000 visitors in the year of opening, then half a million per year.

Football team

Stade Bollaert

In addition to its economic activities, Lens has the national reach of its famous football club, the club Racing Lens , the 'Blood and Gold "(named after the Catalan flag ), a real cultural hub and sports of the city, which contributes strongly to its national prominence, and the symbol of the active memory of coal and certain values dear to the city of Lens and the coalfield region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The team was champion of France of football in 1998, won the League Cup in 1999, a semifinalist in the UEFA Cup in 2000, winner of the Intertoto Cup in 2005 and regularly present on the European football scene. However the club down in League 2 at the end of the 2007-2008 season in order to make a short pass and back the following season in Ligue 1.

Felix-Bollaert Stadium

The city of Lens has the Stade Felix-Bollaert of a sports facility of international renown. Located in the heart of town, it is built on the model of English stadiums. The image of the city is inseparable from this place dedicated to soccer. It reflects the passion that Lensois and the regional population have for RC Lens. National importance, it has a capacity greater than the total population of the city. His attendance record was 48,912 spectators in 1992 , before its upgrading to international standards and work that has reduced its capacity to 42,000 seats. Lens is the smallest city to have hosted a World Cup football (in 1998 ) and a Rugby World Cup (in 1999 and then 2007 ). The stadium also hosted, in addition to the European meetings of the local club, several home matches that of Lille , a city much bigger but that was not equipped with such a stage.

Lens is one of the cities that were selected to host the Euro in 2016.

Personalities linked to the common

The church of Saint-Leger de Lens

Birth

• Augustus Behal , professor of organic chemistry , former president of the Academy of Sciences , member of the Academy of Medicine on 29 March 1859.
• Value Amand , a professor at the School of Pharmacy, Paris , Vice-President and Secretary General of the Chemical Society of France , general manager plant Poulenc , on 12 June 1870.
• Delaby Raymond , Professor of Chemistry , member of the Academy of Pharmacy , on 20 September 1891.
• Andre Hornez , author-lyricist, operettas, many successes Ray Ventura , 1905
• Jose Beyaert , rider bicycle , the ¹October 1925.
• Andr Capron , doctor, member of the Academy of Sciences on 30 December 1930.
• Michel Graillier , jazz pianist, on 18 October 1946.
• Christophe Salengro , actor, 9 August 1953.
• Oudjani Sharif , a professional footballer 9 December 1964.
• Stphane Rotenberg , entertainer and TV presenter, on 21 September 1967.
• Pauline , singer, on 5 January 1988.

Deaths

• Jean de Gassion , Marshal of France, 1647
• Emile Basly , union and mayor of the city, 11 February 1928
• Maurice Garin , the first winner of the Tour de France on 19 February 1957
• Emilian Moreau-Evrard (1898-1971), companion of the Liberation , the 5 January 1971.

Economy

Lens is the seat of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Borough of Lens. The weight of public service is very important because it represents 29% of total wage employment in the city and the five largest employers are the hospital, the town hall, police station, the technical school and the community of agglomeration.

Industrial establishments are not very large. They include plastics Amkey Mecacorp (190 employees) who work for the automotive and belong to the group Mecaplast of Monaco, and TT Plast (90 sal.) ETCI Metalwork (120 emp.) Lensois the Copper (75 Nexans sal.) Semec (general mechanics, 75 sal.).

In construction and maintenance, Lens hosts Veolia Water Treatment (120 employees), cleanings GSF Stella (200 emp.) Concerto (90 sal.) Cofraneth and (65 sal.) Electrical installations Soleg (65 sal..), structures Miroux (180 emp.) and DG (70 sal.) finishes building BIP (85 sal.) coverage Applicamat (50 sal.) public works Eiffage (80 sal.) and Colas (75 sal.).

Tertiary activities appear offices Computer JSI (130 employees) and Techni Euro Controls (85 sal.) Orange call center (170 emp.) Caisse d'Epargne (290 emp.) Brinks (60 emp.), Ed (85 sal.) Adrexo (390 emp.) Mediapost (180 emp.) Arvato specializes in direct marketing (1 740 employees across three sites), transport Lezier (210 sal. ), Dumont (130 emp.) Accart (100 emp.), the brewer and the garage Soldib Lallain (55 sal.). Racing Club de Lens employs about 70 employees that it must add its training center, The Cleavers (150 emp.).

The largest employers are the supermarket Carrefour Market (two stores), Atac The Ferret and the library's north. The mall Lens 2 (hypermarket, shopping, DIY and household equipment) is located on the outskirts, a few miles Vendin-le-Vieil. A food market is held on Tuesdays and Fridays in downtown.

Lens is the center of a metropolitan city that has many industrial and commercial establishments. Among the most important include the automotive industry, the big engine plant jointly owned by Renault, Peugeot and Volvo as the French Mechanics (4000 employees), semi-trailers aluminum Benalu (310 emp.) Durisotti body (430 emp.) metallurgy in Nexans (160 emp.), in agribusiness, factory McCain (590 emp.) that converts 420,000 tons of potatoes per year and draws 700 tonnes of chips a day, the bakery Eurorol (140 sal., group American Earthgrains) and biscuits Eurodough the same group (75 sal.) in the diet canned fish Dutriaux (55 sal.) , cured meats Norvia (50 sal.) meat PCB (50 sal.) in the textile linen Descamps (220 emp.) Filartois (140 emp.), in distribution, Carrefour hypermarkets (430 sal .) and Cora (380 emp.) Brico-Dpt stores (65 sal.) Saturn and Media (appliances, 70 sal.) center Leclerc (110 emp.) Champion Supermarket (160 emp.) Atac (40 emp.) Intermarch (40 sal.) Match (105 emp.) Leroy Merlin stores (130 emp.) Conforama (75 sal.) Decathlon (50 sal.) Baker (50 sal. ) Locagel (85 sal.), plus warehouses Logidis Carrefour Group (160 emp.) cleaning the Alliance (200 emp.) and Clean Service (55 sal.) property management Soginorpa (160 emp.), France -Leisure (210 sal). ...

The Louvre, the opening is scheduled for late 2012 is expected to employ between 120 and 150 agents. Direct consequence of the implementation of the Louvre in the city, a digital hub and cultural will be created under the name Euralens. With this cluster, the city and the wider mining area, claim to occupy the forefront of developments in a knowledge industry and a booming new economy. The project should enable the emergence of a cluster involving companies, research centers and training, cultural actors who specialize in the digitization of cultural heritage in the development of technologies for transmission. This equipment is expected to create 1 000 to 1 500 jobs in the next five years. ^{Major projects}

To accompany the opening of the Louvre (see above), several major projects are designed to offer the city of Lens a truly metropolitan horizon 2015.

• The tram Lievin - Lens - mall Noyelles-Godault;
• Development of Pole Stations: the new address and tertiary hospitality of the city served by the first tram line and creation in the old Apollo cinema in a shopping center, cultural and hotel;
• Enhancing the attractiveness of downtown;
• The Public Establishment for Cultural Cooperation (EPCC) at the Louvre-Lens will also have an auditorium of 300 seats, The Scene, "a flexible space which will offer multidisciplinary cultural events (lectures, discussion, live performances , etc..) organized in close collaboration with the Louvre " .
• A casino operated by the group Partouche coupled with a luxury hotel, all connected by Bollaert stadium in an underground car park;
• Creating new neighborhoods:
  • Nexans cable factory site Nexans , a former Alcatel , abandoned in 2006 in favor of Noyelles-sous-Lens, leaving a wasteland of 55 ha will be allocated to the construction of 350 housing units for officers, a supermarket, a gallery of antiques and a nursing home.
  • Van Pelt: development of a new mixed neighborhood in the city's entrance.
  • Garin: development of a proposed luxury real estate in the immediate vicinity of the museum;
• A green corridor: The urban railway property retains broad and general Bollaert football stadium, which will allow the establishment of a green corridor and alignment monumental west and north-west of the center city with the Louvre, the stadium and the university, completed a little further north by the hospital and relayed to the southeast by the Water Slide Park, which is another green space filled ponds.

Demographics

Like most cities in the coalfield region , Lens has experienced the largest population in the period of coal mining, to the 1930 population and the fall started since 1962 and more strongly in the 1990s. We can assess this loss at over 30 000 inhabitants for the SCOT Lens-Lievin Hnin-Carvin . While in 1999, Lens reverse the trend and win 1,189 new residents from the 1990 census . Certainly, there was an increase from 1990 to 1999 but from 1999 to July 2005, the census shows that the city loses exactly 903 inhabitants and 192 inhabitants from 36 to 35 289 inhabitants . Making it the third largest region after the fall of Calais (- 3165) and Lievin (- 1030). That said, these are just figures "provisional." The current mayor Guy Delcourt says "That population has declined Lensois still likely because the widows of miners harbored several children and they die, these children leave the home and the community" .

Demographics

Changes in the number of inhabitants is known throughout the population censuses conducted at Lens since 1793. According to the census INSEE in 2007 , Lens has 36 011 inhabitants (compared to a stagnation in 1999 ). The town occupies the ^199th place nationally, while she was at 194 ^th in 1999.

Age structure

The population of the town is relatively young. The rate of people age over 60 years (21.3%) is indeed lower than the national rate (21.6%) while still above the county rate (19.8%). Like the national and departmental allocations, the female population of the municipality is greater than the male population. Rate (53.5%) is higher than the national rate (51.6%).

The distribution of the population of the municipality by age is, in 2007 , the following:

• 46.5% of males (0-14 years = 20.6%, 15 to 29 years = 25.1%, 30 to 44 years = 19.2%, 45 to 59 years = 19%, more than 60 years = 16.1%);
• 53.5% of women (0-14 years = 18.4%, 15-29 years = 21.1%, 30 to 44 years = 17%, 45 to 59 years = 17.8%, over 60 years = 25.7%).

Administration

The University of Artois, in the former offices of Big Coal Mines

In 2011 , the town of Lens was awarded the label " Ville Internet @ @ " .

Successive Mayors

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Lens in the borough and townships: Canton of Lens-Nord-Ouest Canton of Lens-Nord-Est Canton of Lens-Est

• Jean-Paul, Marquis Alciati (appointed by the king) 1789-1791
• Antoine de Cardevac, canon of the Collegiate 1791 (from January 15 to May 30)
• Charles Marcadet 1791 (from 13 June to 18 November)
• Marie-Gabriel Roussel 1792
• Albert Grard 1794 (4 January to 22 June)
• Guislain Decrombecque (father) 1794 (22 June to 3 September)
• Charles Delalleau 1793-1794 (September 3 to December 7)
• Joseph Delabre 1794-1797
• Charles Bauduin 1797-1798 (from 21 November to 21 February)
• Florent Marre (father) 1798-1800 (21 February 1798 to August 1800)
• Eustace Canfin 1805-1808 (9 March 1805 to January 1808)
• Leroy Prosper 1808-1815 (10 August)
• Pierre-Philippe Lebrun 1815-1816 (January)
• Leclecq 1816-1832 (September)
• Pierre-Philippe Lebrun 1832 (before May)
• Jean Baptiste Carlier 1835-1837 (March)
• Pierre Baudry 1837-1846 (10 September)
• Guislain Decrombecque 1846-1865 (29 September)
• Philippe Testu 1865-1868 (September)
• Henri Spriet 1868-1871 (June)
• Jean-Baptiste Griselle 1871-1874 (February)
• Paul Cayer 1874-1876 (16 February)
• Alphonse Caille 1876-1877 (September)
• Bernard Grard 1877-1880 (May Acting appointed in August)
• Eugene Bar 1880-1884 (January 4)
• Charles Poirier 1884-1885 (May)
• Augustus Frmicourt-Douchet 1885-1892
• Alfred Wagon 1892-1896 (since August ai, appointed in October)
• Eugene Courtin 1886-1900 (May)
• Emile Basly 1900-1928
• Alfred Maes 1928-1941
• Marcel Hanotel 1941-1944
• Paul Sion 1944-1945
• Auguste Lecoeur ( PCF ) from 1945 to 1947
• Ernest Schaffner ( PCF ) from 1947 to 1966
• Andre Delelis ( PS ) 1966-1998
• Guy Delcourt ( PS ) 1998 -

References

1. Communes.com - Local Life - Lens
2. INSEE
3. Fact differentiated management of Lens Notes

   Related articles

   • Coach Lens
   • Battle of Lens
   • Communes of the Pas-de-Calais
   • Compagnie des Mines de Lens

   External Links

   • Official site
   • Memory Lens Association (described a historical perspective of many buildings, localities, personalities ...)

   Communes of the Lens-Lievin Communaupole

   Ablain St. Nazaire Acheville Aix-Noulette Angres Annay Plane Bnifontaine Billy-Montigny Bouvigny-Boyeffles Bully-les-Mines Carency -leu said Leauwette Estevelles Fouquires-lez-Lens Givenchy-en-Gohelle Gouy-Servins Grenay Harnes Hulluch Lens Lievin Loison-sous-Lens Loos-en-Gohelle Mazingarbe Mricourt Meurchin Noyelles-sous-Lens Bridge to Vendin Sains-en-Gohelle Sallaumines Servins Souchez Vendin-le-Vieil Villers-au-Bois Vimy Wingles

   Towns in the district of Lens
   Township of Plane	Airplane Mricourt
   Township Bully-les-Mines	Bully-les-Mines Mazingarbe
   Township Carvin	Carvin Libercourt
   Township Courrires	Courrires Oignies
   Township of Harnes	Estevelles Harnes Bridge to Vendin
   Township of Hnin-Beaumont	Henin-Beaumont Noyelles-Godault
   Township Leforest	Courcelles-ls-Lens Dourges Evin-Malmaison Leforest
   Township Lens-Est	Lens Sallaumines
   Township Lens Northeast	Annay Lens Loison-sous-Lens
   Township Lens-Northwest	Lens Loos-en-Gohelle
   Township Lievin-North	Grenay Lievin
   Township Lievin-South	Angres leu-said Leauwette Lievin
   Township Montigny-en-Gohelle	Henin-Beaumont Montigny-en-Gohelle
   Township Noyelles-sous-Lens	Billy-Montigny Fouquires-lez-Lens Noyelles-sous-Lens
   Township Rouvroy	Drocourt Mricourt Rouvroy
   Township Sains-en-Gohelle	Aix-Noulette Bouvigny-Boyeffles Gouy-Servins Hersin-Coupigny Sains-en-Gohelle Servins
   Township Wingles	Bnifontaine Hulluch Meurchin Vendin-le-Vieil Wingles

   Major cities in Nord-Pas-de-Calais Communes over 30 000 inhabitants
   North	Lille Roubaix Tourcoing Dunkirk Villeneuve d'Ascq Valenciennes Douai Wattrelos Marcq-en-Barul Maubeuge Cambrai
   Pas-de-Calais	Calais Boulogne-sur-Mer Arras Lens Lievin
   Portal communes of France

   • Portal communes of France
   • Portal of Nord-Pas-de-Calais