commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in northern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
Scheldt
The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corr ...
, northwest of
Valenciennes
Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France.
It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a s ...
, of which it is a suburb.
History
Anzin was once the centre of important
coal mine
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
s of the Valenciennes basin belonging to the Anzin Company, the formation of which dates to 1717. The commune's first coal layer of the area in 1734. The company of the mines of Anzin (
Compagnie des mines d'Anzin
The Compagnie des mines d'Anzin (Anzin Mining Company) was a large French mining company in the coal basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais in northern France.
It was established in 1756 and operated for almost 200 years.
The company used innovative pumpi ...
) was created in 1757. In 1884 these mines were visited by
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
, who based his novel '' Germinal'' upon his observations. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the metallurgical industries of the place were extensive, and included iron and copper founding and the manufacture of steam-engines, machinery, chain-cables and a great variety of heavy iron goods. There were also glass-works and breweries.
Population
Popular culture
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier (25 April 1941 – 25 March 2021) was a French director, screenwriter, actor and producer.
Life and career
Tavernier was born in Lyon, France, the son of Geneviève (née Dumond) and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, s ...
Communes of the Nord department
The following is a list of the 648 communes of the Nord department of the French Republic.
The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2020):Masakin