Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens
Monument
Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens, located in Loos-en-Gohelle (Pas-de-Calais), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Loos-en-Gohelle, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.4429, 2.7877
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108467
Sentinels of steel and concrete towering over the Gohelle, the headframes of pit 11-19 embody two centuries of mining history: the highest slag heap in Europe watches over this listed site.
History
In the heart of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coalfield, pit 11-19 at Loos-en-Gohelle is one of France's most striking industrial testimonies. Two radically different architectural styles face each other: the metal lattice headframe of the Pierre Destombes pit, a slender legacy from the early 20th century, and the reinforced concrete extraction tower of Pit 19, a geometric and austere mass from the 1960s. Together, they tell the story of one hundred years of coal mining in the bowels of the Artois region. What makes the site truly unique is the coexistence of two technical generations on the same slab: one based on the metallic civil engineering of the inter-war period, the other on the modernist industrial architecture of the Reconstruction period. Nowhere else in the coalfield - and perhaps nowhere else in Europe - can these two approaches to the same challenge be compared side by side: hoisting coal from a depth of several hundred metres. Visitors passing through the gates of the site enter a world suspended between memory and reconquest. The recipe buildings, still inhabited by their bi-cylindroconical extraction machines, exude the tenacious smell of grease and rust. Pioneering vegetation has colonised the cobblestone joints, while theatre companies have taken up residence in these industrial naves, giving the site an unexpected vitality that blends heritage and contemporary creation. The two conical slag heaps of Loos-en-Gohelle tower 186 metres above the rest of the area, making them the highest in Europe. From their summit, on a clear day, you can see all the way across the Flemish plain to the bell towers of Béthune and Arras. This man-made geography - these black pyramids born of mining waste - gives the site an almost cosmic dimension, somewhere between industrial landscape and involuntary natural monument. As part of the Mining Basin's application to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the pit 11-19 site is now a laboratory for sustainable development, supported by the town of Loos-en-Gohelle, a pioneer in France on these issues. Art, history, ecology and industrial architecture come together in a rare and stimulating dialogue.
Architecture
The pit 11-19 site has a rare architectural duality that makes it an exceptionally rich technical document. The headframe of shaft no. 11, built in 1923, belongs to the great tradition of metallic civil engineering of the inter-war period: a structure of riveted lattice steel girders, light in appearance but unfailingly solid, designed to withstand the considerable dynamic forces generated by the upward movement of the loaded cages. Its inverted-A silhouette, characteristic of mining headframes, stands out against the flat Gohelle sky with functional elegance. The adjacent revenue building, built in red brick - the king material of industrial architecture in the North - houses the bi-cylindroconical extraction machine, a masterpiece of industrial mechanics whose flywheels and cylinders are a spectacle in themselves. Opposite it, the extraction tower for shaft no. 19, built in 1960, follows a completely different logic: reinforced concrete was used here to build a monolithic, vertical structure, the height and mass of which met the requirements of a deeper shaft and more intensive extraction. The only surviving structure of its type in the coalfield, this tower embodies the industrial architecture of the Trente Glorieuses - functionalist, unadorned and unadorned - and, together with the metal headframe of shaft 11, forms an architectural dialogue between two eras and two building philosophies. The two conical spoil heaps that flank the site, although not protected as Historic Monuments, are the dominant landscape feature of the complex: reaching a height of 186 metres, they represent several decades of accumulation of shale and waste rock from mining. Their perfectly symmetrical, almost geometric shape gives them a sculptural presence that goes far beyond their utilitarian origins.
Related Figures
Pierre Destombes — directeur de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens, dont le puits n° 11 porte le nom en hommageIngénieurs des Houillères du Bassin du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais — concepteurs de la tour d'extraction en béton armé du puits 19 (1960)Eugène Schneider — figure emblématique de l'industrie minière et métallurgique du Nord, dont l'influence marqua la modernisation des chevalements métalliquesJean-François Caron — maire de Loos-en-Gohelle, artisan de la reconversion durable du site et figure nationale du développement durableLes gueules noires de Loos-en-Gohelle — les mineurs anonymes qui descendirent dans ce puits durant près d'un siècle, chevilles ouvrières de l'épopée houillère
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens located?
Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens is located in Loos-en-Gohelle, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens built?
Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens open to visitors?
Ancien site minier de la fosse 11-19 de la Compagnie des Mines de Lens is currently closed to visitors.