Borne commémorative

This commemorative marker in Roubaix most likely references the Courrières mining disaster of March 10, 1906 — to this day the deadliest mining catastrophe in European history, claiming 1,099 lives, among them many children. A firedamp explosion ripped through the collieries of the Compagnie des mines de Courrières, devastating the coal-mining communities of northern France. The memorial stands as a quiet reminder of industrial-era labour and loss in a region whose identity was long shaped by the mines.