Avion, Pas-de-Calais

Avion is a commune with 17,947 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2011 ) in the Pas -de- Calais, in the Nord -Pas -de -Calais. The place belongs to the Communauté d' agglomération de Lens - Liévin.

History

In the High Middle Ages Avion was a small farming village with a windmill and the finished around 1150 Saint-Denis church ( rebuilt after its destruction in 1680 ). In the early modern period, this region was, like the rest of Artois, part of the Spanish Netherlands (up to 1659).

Due to its location in the northern French coal basin, which extends from about Valenciennes, Douai and Lens after Bruay la Buissière, the Industrial Revolution also had an effect on Avion. Since the early 1870s, when the first well was drilled on the municipality, the then only about 1,700 residents harboring commune developed into a typical contemporary, rapidly growing mining community whose aboveground townscape was strongly influenced by this industry ( mining towers, storage and transport facilities, mine colonies, slag heaps, etc.). Two mining companies, the compagnies des mines Lens and Liévin, worked there. In particular, after the First World War there were numerous Poland - often after a stopover in the Ruhr area - as miners in this region. After the Second World War and the liberation of the country from German occupation of coal mining in France and thus the mining companies from Lens and Liévin in May 1946 for political and economic reasons was ( you bataille charbon, dt " Battle of the coal " ) nationalized and went on in the Houillères National du Bassin Nord-Pas- de -Calais. In 1960, shortly before the onset of the coal crisis, passed the 20,000 mark Avions population.

With the cessation of coal mining (1988 ), the concomitant loss of jobs and the necessary structural change began a slow reversal of this growth process. Mining activities were reduced in the early 21st century on the promotion of CMM. The progress of the restoration of land that has to refer to the former exploitation of coal resources is particularly evident at up to 119 meters high terril d' Avion, also terril of Pinchonvalles called (pictured at right ), one of the largest of linear expansion and volume, European waste dumps. It is nowadays predominantly forested, is a nature reserve and is part of a non-local green axis.

Population Development

Sons and daughters Avions

• Théodore Szkudlapski (1935-2006), French footballer

Twinning

Avion has partnerships with the English town of Doncaster, the city Oelsnitz / Erzgeb. in Germany as well as with Zgorzelec in Poland.