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Lens |
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Lens
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Location within Nord-Pas-de-Calais region
Lens
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| Administration | |
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| Country | France |
| Region | Nord-Pas-de-Calais |
| Department | Pas-de-Calais |
| Arrondissement | Lens |
| Canton | Chief town of 3 cantons |
| Intercommunality | Communaupole de Lens-Liévin |
| Mayor | Guy Delcourt (2001–2008) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 27–71 m (89–233 ft) |
| Land area1 | 11.57 km2 (4.47 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 36,257 (2006) |
| - Density | 3,134 /km2 (8,120 /sq mi) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 62498/ 62300 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
Lens (French pronunciation: [lɑ̃s] ( listen)) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is one of France's large Picarde cities along with Lille, Valenciennes, Amiens, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Arras, and Douai.
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Lens belongs to the intercommunality of Lens-Liévin, which consists of 36 communes, with a total population of 250,000. Lens, along with Douai, forms the metropolitan area of Douai-Lens, whose population at the 1999 census was 552,682.
Lens is an industrial city and has a long history of coal mining. Surrounding the town are many large spoil tips, evidence of over a hundred years of mining, which came to an end in the 1960s.
The city supports a top-level football team, Racing Club de Lens.
In the 1520s, Lens was part of the Spanish Netherlands, and only passed back to France in 1659.
In 1849, coal was discovered in Lens, leading to the expansion of the city, becoming an important industrial center.
At Vimy, a small town very close to Lens, are the Vimy Memorial and Vimy Ridge.
From 2012, Lens will also be the location of the Louvre-Lens.