The Nord-Pas de Calais Coalfield extends over 120 kilometres and presents a remarkably diverse and very dense collection of legacies from the mining industry¹: five generations of pit head frames, around two hundred slag heaps, large extraction sites, more than six hundred mining towns and their collective facilities, a comprehensive transport network and traditions, and still alive collective customs.

The coal industry has shaped the region, its landscapes and towns, has forged its identity and has permanently transformed its people’s lifestyles. This technical, social, cultural and environmental heritage provides an authentic illustration of the major changes which Industrialisation brought about over nearly three centuries (1720-1990).

The application for UNESCO World Heritage List is submitted under the category of Continuing Cultural Landscape, since this category alone champions a regional philosophy, closely combining tangible elements, remembrance and future dynamism. It is absolutely not a case of putting forward a series of beautiful objects and sites frozen in time, but instead of supporting the coherence of the real contemporary heritage and culture of a former industrial basin. The emphasis is therefore resoundingly placed on a very diverse region, unified by coal mining.