UNESCO Mining Basin — Registered properties

The UNESCO zoning of the mining basin takes over all the elements classified as World Heritage under “Live Cultural Landscape” on June 30, 2012 The numerous inventories conducted between 2003 and 2009 have now made it possible to identify more than 1,200 elements of mining heritage throughout the territory. This work on landscape inventories and analyses has been intersected with other approaches, including historical ones: immigration, security, global conflicts, changes in exploitation techniques, history of companies and nationalised groups, history of workers’ habitat in Europe, trade union history and mining culture... Within the framework of the constitution of the listing proposal and taking into account the standards imposed, a number of these elements have been prioritised and selected, in the interests of representativeness and according to multiple criteria of value: integrity, authenticity, architecture, urban planning, history, geology, geography, diversity of landscapes, state of conservation, protection and management... In the end, 25 % of the total mining heritage was retained, i.e. 353 elements. The perimeter of the Registered Property is thus composed of elements and sets of built and landscaped elements, bearing the Outstanding Universal Value of the North-Pas de Calais Mining Basin. The overall reading offers a complete interpretation of the Basin as a cultural landscape.