Bruay-la-Buissière (; , ) is a commune in the

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

department in the

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; ; ), also referred to in English as Upper France, is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

in northern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Geography

It is a former

coalmining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. 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 extrac ...

town some southwest of

Béthune Béthune ( ; archaic and ''Bethwyn'' historically in English) is a town in northern France, Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department. Geography Béthune is located in the Provinces of Fran ...

and southwest of

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

, at the junction of the D57 and the N47 roads.

History

With four

coal mines Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

, it was the headquarters of the

Bruay Mining Company The Compagnie des mines de Bruay (''English'': Bruay Mining Company) was a French coal extraction company which operated in the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin between 1850 and 1946. It operated 18 mine shafts at eight production sites in Bruay-l ...

. The coal mines closed during the 1960s, to be replaced by light industrial work and chemical factories. In April 1972 the murder of miner's daughter Brigitte Dewevre became a politicized event when Pierre Leroy, a local middle-class lawyer associated with the local mining company, was arrested: ''La Cause du Peuple'', the paper of the Maoist

Gauche prolétarienne The (GP) was a French Maoist political party which existed from 1968 to 1974. As Christophe Bourseiller put it, "Of all the Maoist organizations after May 1968, the most important numerically as well as in cultural influence was without question ...

, publicized the case with the headline 'Bruay: And Now They Are Massacring Our Children!' The two former communes of Bruay-en-Artois and Labuissière were joined as one commune in 1987.

Population

The population data given in the table and graph below for 1982 and earlier refer to the former commune of Bruay-en-Artois.

Sights

* The Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall), 47 m tall built in 1927. The windows recount scenes from the lives of miners. * The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

swimming pool, built in 1936 (the last remaining Art Deco pool open to the public) * The Museum of mining. * The Church of Saint Martin, dating from the fifteenth century, was expanded and renovated in 1974. * Ballencourt manor in Labuissière, was built in 1777. Partially renovated, it now hosts the music school. * The

donjon A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residenc ...

of the castle of La Buissière, built in 1310 by

Mahaut, Countess of Artois Mahaut of Artois also known as Mathilda (1268 27 November 1329), ruled as Countess of Artois from 1302 to 1329. She was furthermore regent of the County of Burgundy from 1303 to 1315 during the minority and the absence of her daughter, Joan II, ...

. * The church at Labuissière, presently closed to the public for renovation work. * The Velodrome at Labuissière built by the Bruay Mining Co., in 1925. * The Museum of calculation and Scripture. Traces the history of writing and calculating machines such as the

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York–based data-technology startup *Enigma machine, a famil ...

German coding machine.

References

External links