Lens (Pas-de-Calais)
| Lens | ||
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| region | Hauts-de-France | |
| Department | Pas-de-Calais | |
| Arrondissement | Lens | |
| Canton | Lens (main town) | |
| Community association | Lens-Liévin | |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 26 ′ N , 2 ° 50 ′ E | |
| height | 27-71 m | |
| surface | 11.70 km 2 | |
| Residents | 31,415 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 2,685 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 62300 | |
| INSEE code | 62498 | |
| Website | www.villedelens.fr | |
 View of Lens |
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Lens [ lɑs ] is a French city with 31,415 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the department of Pas-de-Calais in the region of Hauts-de-France 200 km north of Paris and 35 km south of Lille . Together with the neighboring town of Liévin, it forms an agglomeration (the Communauté d'agglomération de Lens-Liévin ). The greater area including Douai forms a metropolitan area (aire urbaine) with 550,000 inhabitants. The once important hard coal mining is now economically insignificant, but some of its facilities form part of the northern French coal mining area , which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 .
history
The place was first mentioned in 1245 as the property of the Lords of Mons. In 1526 Lens came to Spain as part of Artois .
In 1648 the Battle of Lens took place. As a result of the Peace of the Pyrenees , it came to France in 1659.
In 1841 abundant coal deposits were discovered in the region and Lens as well as Douai, Liévin u. a. developed into a kind of French Ruhr area . The Canal de Lens was built to ship the coal, some of which still exists today.
During the First World War the city was occupied by Germany and lost half of its population.
Post-war reconstruction was interrupted by World War II, when the city was again occupied by German troops in 1940 and heavily bombed by Anglo-American bombers in 1944.
In the post-war period, the city experienced an economic boom, but this was followed by high unemployment and increasing emigration after the last mine was closed in 1986.
Lens also became known through the riot during the 1998 World Cup in France. On June 21, 1998, during the game between Germany and Yugoslavia in Lens, street battles broke out between hooligans and the police . At the time, the gendarme Daniel Nivel suffered severe head injuries, fell into a coma for six weeks and has been severely disabled since then. The images of the beatings went around the world.
Culture and sights
In Lens, the 14,000 m² Louvre-Lens Museum was opened as a branch of the Louvre in Paris on December 4, 2012 by the French President François Hollande. Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand laid the foundation stone for this on December 4, 2009. Up to 550,000 visitors a year are expected there.
Over 2,000 World War I dead lie in a British military cemetery near Lens .
Sports
Lens is known nationally for its RC Lens football club , which became French champions in 1998 . In the 2014/15 to 2019/20 seasons he played in Ligue 2 , and since the 2020/21 season again in Ligue 1 . The club plays its home games in the Stade Bollaert-Delelis , a football stadium with 41,233 seats, where matches from the 1998 World Cup and the 2016 European Football Championship were played.
traffic
Paris can be reached in 70 minutes by TGV . On the A1 motorway and the motorway A 211 Lens is linked to Paris and Lille.
economy
Solar thin-film modules have been manufactured in Lens since 1986 . The company Free Energy Europe has expanded this standard program over the years and now also produces solar lamps and solar LCD televisions.
education
Lens is home to the Université d'Artois and several other universities.
Personalities
- Auguste Béhal (1859–1941), chemist
- José Beyaert (1925–2005), cyclist
- Jérémy Cadot (* 1986), fencer
- André Capron (1930–2020), medical doctor
- Claude Dubaële (* 1940), football player and coach
- Michel Graillier (1946–2003), jazz pianist
- Daniel Nivel (* 1954), policeman who fell victim to German hooligans
- Michel Trollé (* 1959), racing car driver
- Pascal Cygan (* 1974), football player
Web links
- Official website of the city (French, English)
- Tourist information (French, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stefan Simons: A Louvre for the backwoodsmen. spiegel.de from November 20, 2012, accessed on November 20, 2012.
- ^ Second Louvre in Lens: Well-known works of art in a battered area. In: FOCUS Online . December 4, 2012, accessed December 4, 2012 .
- ↑ Project milestone ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from the Louvre-Lens website, accessed January 2, 2010.
- ↑ Another Louvre museum is being built in the mining area. Le Monde December 4th 2009.
- ↑ Estimate on the website of the new museum (French) ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 26, 2012.
- ^ Vermelles - British Cemetery. In: Chemins de Mémoire. French Ministry of Defense, accessed November 30, 2012 (French).
