On Wednesday, Como will travel to Lens to face Les Sang et Or on Matchday 4 of the Champions League league phase. Cesc Fàbregas’ side will arrive in a northern French city where football is not merely a sporting event, but one of the central elements of local identity.

Home to around 33,000 people, Lens is located in the Pas-de-Calais department of the Hauts-de-France region. Its territory has been shaped by coal mining, working-class communities and the reconstruction that followed the destruction of the First World War.

Today, the remains of its industrial past coexist with the Louvre-Lens and the Bollaert-Delelis, one of French football’s most distinctive grounds. To understand the city that will welcome Como, it is necessary to begin beneath the ground, move through its cultural transformation and eventually arrive at Racing Club de Lens.

Lens, a Mining City in Northern France

For more than a century, the economy and landscape of Lens were closely connected to coal. The mines attracted workers, drove the city’s expansion and led to the construction of workers’ neighbourhoods, schools, churches and infrastructure.

Mining did not transform only what lay underground. Above the surface, it left behind shafts, industrial railway lines, rows of brick houses and, most visibly, the terrils: artificial hills created from the material accumulated during coal extraction.

Many of those former spoil heaps have now become green landmarks and observation points. The twin terrils of the 11/19 mining site rise to 186 metres and are considered among the highest in Europe.

The relationship between the mines, the working community and football is also central to the history of RC Lens, a club that developed alongside the city and gradually became one of the territory’s most important symbols.

From Coal Mining to UNESCO World Heritage

The last mine in Lens closed in 1986. The end of coal extraction did not erase the industrial landscape, which has instead become central to the region’s collective memory.

In 2012, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The protected area includes mining shafts, headframes, railway lines, terrils, workers’ estates, schools, religious buildings and places associated with the social organisation of mining communities.

Lens stands at the heart of this wider system. Its architecture, streets and football culture cannot be fully understood without considering the city’s industrial past.

Racing Club de Lens has built much of its identity around that heritage. The blood-and-gold colours belong to a deeply popular club supported not only by the city’s residents, but by communities throughout the former mining basin.

The Louvre-Lens and the City’s Cultural Transformation

The year 2012 also marked another decisive moment for Lens. In the same year as the UNESCO recognition, the Louvre-Lens opened on a former mining site.

The museum is not simply a smaller reproduction of the Louvre in Paris. It has its own identity and was created to bring France’s national collections to the north of the country, establishing a new relationship between art, territory and the local community.

At the heart of the museum is the Galerie du Temps, an open exhibition space covering approximately 3,000 square metres. Its works are arranged chronologically, without the traditional rigid separation between civilisations, artistic schools and historical periods.

The museum’s location captures the city’s recent transformation. Works from major French collections are now displayed on land once devoted to coal extraction.

This does not represent the removal of Lens’ industrial past, but its reinterpretation. The city has used culture to begin a new chapter while preserving the visible traces of its history.

A City Rebuilt After War

The story of Lens is not limited to mining. The city was almost entirely destroyed during the First World War, and the surrounding territory still contains numerous places connected to the conflict and the memory of those who died.

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, the Ring of Remembrance and several military cemeteries are all located close to Lens. The landscape therefore brings together two major chapters of European history: industrialisation and the First World War.

The reconstruction that followed also left Lens with several Art Deco buildings. These now form part of the urban identity alongside the workers’ brick houses, preserved mining structures and more recent cultural spaces.

Lens is not a monumental destination in the conventional sense. Its interest lies in the possibility of reading history through the landscape: the terrils, the brick neighbourhoods, the museum, the memorial sites and the football stadium.

Football at the Heart of Lens

In a city of around 33,000 people, a stadium holding more than 38,000 takes on a particular meaning. The https://thecomofootballjournal.com/stade-bollaert-delelis-lens-como/ can accommodate more spectators than the entire municipal population and stands within the urban fabric, only a short distance from the centre.

That contrast helps explain the importance of Racing Club de Lens. The club represents an area that extends far beyond the city boundaries, drawing supporters from across the Pas-de-Calais.

Lens changes rhythm on matchdays. Blood-and-gold scarves appear throughout the streets as supporters move towards the Bollaert-Delelis. Football becomes a meeting point between contemporary life and the memory of the former mining community.

Lens also have a notable history in European competition. Before Como’s visit, it is worth exploring RC Lens’ results against Italian clubs, from their meetings with Lazio and AC Milan to their matches against Sampdoria, Udinese and Parma.

From the Sinigaglia to the Champions League

The most recent connection between Lens and Como was established during the summer. The French club were invited to the second Como Cup and won the tournament after beating Villarreal 3-1 in the final at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia.

The competition gave Como supporters an early opportunity to watch their future European opponents. The story of Lens revealed an organised side capable of producing goals and recovering after falling behind.

The summer tournament and the Champions League naturally belong to very different contexts. The connection is nevertheless significant: only a few months after Lens lifted a trophy beside Lake Como, Fàbregas’ team will travel in the opposite direction to face the French club in its own stadium.

Lens Welcomes Como

Como will therefore arrive in a city where the match cannot be separated from the history of the territory.

Lens is smaller than many cities on the Champions League map, but football carries enormous importance there. Racing Club de Lens represents a meeting point between the mining past, popular identity and the cultural transformation of recent decades.

With its UNESCO-listed mining landscape, workers’ neighbourhoods, wartime memory and internationally significant art collections, Lens will welcome Como as a city built on continuity between its past and present.

At the centre of the occasion will be the Bollaert-Delelis: a stadium capable of holding more people than the city’s population and ready to host another European night.