Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Notre-Dame-des-Mineurs church in Waziers, built between 1923 and 1927 by architects Louis Marie Cordonnier and his son Louis-Stanislas, was built to accommodate Polish immigrant minors in the 1920s. Sponsored by the Company of Mines of Aniche, it is part of the Cité de la Clochette, an urban complex inspired by the gardens, mixing red bricks, white stone and tiles to avoid monotony. The interior evokes mining galleries, with furniture inlaid with mosaics and stained glass windows of great simplicity. Number 3, symbolizing the Trinity, architecture structure: three doors, three windows per gable, three colonnades on the truncated bell tower.

The dedicated presbyteries, protected since 2010 for their facades and roofs, combine classical tradition (Serl Lucarnes), picturesque neo-regionalist (tourelles, false half-timbers) and Art Deco elements (bow-windows, anthropomorphism). They complement a religious heritage marked by Polish influence, especially under the leadership of the priest Francis Wojtyla, cousin of John Paul II. The latter played a key role in revitalizing the church in the 21st century, following its transfer to a diocesan association in 2001. The building, classified as a historical monument in 2010 and as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, has since 2014 been home to a relic of John Paul II: a fragment of his bloody sudan after the 1981 attack.

The Cité de la Clochette, whose church is the heart, grouped three neighborhoods (Notre-Dame, la Clochette, Berce-Guant) around collective facilities such as schools and a patronage. The latter is distinguished by an anthropomorphic facade, reflecting the typological originality of the site. The various materials (brick, stone, tile) and careful decorations aimed to humanize the industrial space. Together, the integration of immigrant communities, especially Polish, into the northern mining basin, where the Catholic faith served as a social cement. Today, the church remains a place of pilgrimage, with a monthly celebration dedicated to the papal relic.

The history of Waziers dates back well before the 20th century: as early as 1123, the abbey of Marchiennes owned a tithe, later ceded to the chapter of Saint-Pierre de Douai. In the Middle Ages, the local seigneury, like that of Hellin de Wavrin (1229), financed castral or urban chapels. However, it was mining industrialization that radically transformed the village, attracting thousands of Poles whose culture and spirituality marked the landscape. The priest Francis Wojtyla, who arrived in 1981, perpetuated this link by making the church a symbol of worker and migrant memory, reinforced by the presence of the relic.

External links