Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard
Monument
Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard, located in Lens (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
- Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.4428, 2.8096
- Mérimée Reference
- PA62000088
At the heart of the Saint-Édouard mining estate in Lens, this school complex and its ancillary buildings bear witness to the paternalistic town planning of the Compagnie des Mines de Lens, a blend of social architecture and working-class memory.
History
Located opposite the church of Saint-Édouard, in one of the most emblematic districts of the Pas-de-Calais coalfield, the Jean Macé school complex and the surrounding buildings form a remarkably coherent architectural whole. Designed at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the Compagnie des Mines de Lens, this complex illustrates with particular acuity the paternalistic policy of the major mining companies in the north of France: to house, educate, supervise and moralise a rapidly expanding working-class population. What makes this site truly unique is the superimposition of two construction phases separated by the trauma of the Great War. The attentive visitor can read in the bricks and volumes two distinct periods: the foundations of a social ambition at the end of the 19th century, then the methodical reconstruction of the 1920s, carried out with scrupulous fidelity to the original intentions. The architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier, a major figure in Northern France architecture, played a central role in both phases, giving the whole a stylistic unity that is rare for a building born out of disaster. Visiting the site is like immersing yourself in the world of UNESCO World Heritage mining towns. The row of houses around the school, the allotments and the staff accommodation form a strikingly authentic setting. You can still see the hierarchical organisation of the mining society: the headmaster had his own dwelling adjoining the schools, while the teaching sisters occupied separate accommodation, a sign of meticulously thought-out social order. The urban setting of housing estate no. 12, known as "Saint-Édouard", also offers a fine lesson in urban history. Located away from the centre of Lens, this housing estate was designed as a town within a town, with all the facilities needed for community life: a girls' school, a boys' school, an asylum, a workroom, school gardens and a place of worship. Listed as a Historic Monument since 2009, the Jean Macé school group is part of the drive to promote the region's mining heritage, which is supported by the Mission Bassin Minier and has received international recognition since the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coalfield was listed by UNESCO in 2012.
Architecture
The architecture of the Jean Macé school complex and its outbuildings is in keeping with the tradition of public buildings in the north of France at the end of the 19th century, tinged with a sober eclecticism characteristic of employers' buildings of the period. Brick, the material of choice in the coalfield, dominates the ensemble, giving the façades a warm, chromatic unity that harmoniously blends with the streamlined houses of the surrounding working-class housing estate. The complex is built on either side of Saint-Édouard church, forming its architectural framework. The school wings, which were raised by one storey during reconstruction in the 1920s, feature elevations punctuated by regular bays, brickwork window surrounds and steeply pitched slate roofs. This increased verticality compared with the initial project gives the school group a strong presence on the forecourt, without competing with the volume of the church. The headmaster's dwelling and the nuns' accommodation, built according to the same compositional principles, harmoniously complete this ensemble, testifying to a global and hierarchical urban planning approach. The school gardens and outdoor spaces contribute to the landscape quality of a site whose overall organisation remains faithful to the intentions of Élie Reumaux and Louis-Marie Cordonnier.
Related Figures
Élie Reumaux — directeur général de la Compagnie des mines de Lens, maître d'ouvrage du plan d'ensemble de la cité Saint-Édouard en 1896Louis-Marie Cordonnier — architecte lillois, auteur des plans de l'église Saint-Édouard (1899) et de la reconstruction du groupe scolaire (1924)Louis Croïn — architecte associé à Cordonnier pour la première construction de l'église Saint-Édouard en 1899Jean Macé — fondateur de la Ligue de l'enseignement (1866), figure de l'instruction publique laïque à qui le groupe scolaire rend hommage
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard located?
Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard is located in Lens, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard built?
Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard open to visitors?
Groupe scolaire Jean Macé, ancienne habitation du directeur des écoles et ancien patronage de la cité n° 12 de la compagnie des mines de Lens dite Saint-Edouard, situés parvis de l'église Saint-Edouard et grand chemin de Loos de part et d'autre de l'église Saint-Edouard is currently closed to visitors.