Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Sainte-Marguerite church of Sains-en-Gohelle, located in Pas-de-Calais, was originally built in 1912 to serve the mining towns of pits 10 and 10 bis, opened in 1903 by the Compagnie des mines de Béthune. Destroyed during the First World War, it symbolized the link between religious life and mining activity, central in this industrial region. Its architecture reflected the spiritual and community needs of miners and their families, in a context marked by rapid urbanization around extraction sites.

The reconstruction of the church was entrusted to architect Louis Cordonnier from 1924 and was inaugurated on 2 May 1926. This new building, characterized by its Art Deco style and its neo-Roman influences, became an emblematic place for post-war reconstruction in the North. Father Georges Lorent, a major figure in the Resistance and mayor of Sains-en-Gohelle from 1945 to 1959, served there for several decades, strengthening his anchor in local life.

From the 1970s to the 1980s, the gradual disaffection of religious practice in the North led to the desecration of the church in the late 1990s. Transformed into a festive hall and then a cultural space under the name of "Marguerite space", it escaped demolition thanks to its inscription in 2012 to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, within the framework of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin. Completely restored in 2014, it now illustrates the stylistic revival of the 1920s and the industrial memory of the region.

The interior of the church, marked by exposed bricks, a wooden frame, and blue-tone Art Deco stained glass windows, bears witness to a bold aesthetic for the time. Its mosaics, its ironwork (lusters, the cross road), and its bell tower inspired by Italian campaniles make it a unique example of the mining religious heritage. The facade, decorated with mosaic friezes and varnished bricks, as well as the stained glass windows representing a glorious cross, underline its identity both sacred and cultural.

The adjoining presbytery, converted into a cultural and social space "the Gohelliades", completes this site dedicated to memory and creation. Ranked among the 87 elements of the mining basin registered with UNESCO, the church of Sainte-Marguerite embodies the transition from an industrial past marked by coal to a present oriented towards heritage and artistic valorisation.

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