Monument aux victimes de la catastrophe de Courrières

English translation

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History

On 10 March 1906, a violent firedamp explosion ravaged pits no. 2 called Auguste Lavaurs at Billy-Montigny, no. 3 called Lavaleresse at Méricourt and no. 4 called Sainte-Barbe at Sallaumines. The catastrophe killed 1,099 miners out of the 1,800 then present in the galleries. The first monument erected at Sallaumines was inaugurated in 1909. It presented itself as a classical allegory of an elderly miner covered in his barette, astiquette raised towards the sky, cradling in his arms a young wounded galibot. In front of the monument, a draped female allegory wrote the dedication. On the sides of the pedestal, the names of the victims were inscribed on large black plaques. During the Great War, the monument was damaged or partly destroyed. At the end of the conflict, architects Jean Goniaux and René-François Delannoy were retained to rebuild it. The pedestal is furnished with contemporary figures (miner, his wife and their children). The base comprising a large torus decorated with laurel leaves and an inscription, is a reuse of the first monument. The sculpture at the summit presents an experienced miner, in heroic nudity, protecting himself from the firedamp blow with one arm. The explosion of gas is represented by rays projecting onto the miner's face.