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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Amé de Lievin, located in Pas-de-Calais, is a Catholic church built in 1934-35 to replace a first building destroyed during the First World War. It is dedicated to Saint Amé, patron saint of Amé Tilloy, founder of the Lens Mining Company, who had built the original church in 1875 to serve the workers of pit No. 3 (the so-called Saint-Amé pit), opened in 1860. The present church, ceded to the municipality in the 1980s, is distinguished by its brick and cement architecture, neo-Roman style, and its atypical northward orientation.

The church stained glass windows, installed in 2008 by artist Judith Debruyn, are his most remarkable element. These thirty-one colourful panels, inaugurated in 2013, evoke the lives of the miners and commemorate the 1974 disaster, where 42 victims were shot with fire. Originally, the windows were filled with simple cathedral glasses, replaced in the 1980s by coloured polyester before this artistic achievement. A sculpture by Raymond Mason completes this tribute to coal workers.

The church is open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturday afternoons, as well as during liturgical celebrations. It is part of the industrial heritage of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin, reflecting the social and economic history of Lievin, marked by coal mining. Its regional bell tower, with an arrow of slates, and its Latin cross with discreet transept make it an example of religious architecture linked to the industrial era.

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