The Pyramiden Museum is a small museum located in Pyramiden,[1] an abandoned town in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The museum features exhibits on biology and history, for example in the form of taxidermal polar wildlife, geological samples from the surrounding area, a few archaeological artefacts from the Pomors, some information on the coal mining industry, and a slew of Soviet memorabilia.
 A stuffed polar bear exhibit at the museum | |
 | |
| Established | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Location | Pyramiden, Svalbard |
| Owner | Trust Arktikugol |
Located 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the regional capital Longyearbyen, the settlement was founded by Sweden in 1910 and purchased by the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1927.[2] A prominent coal mining settlement, Pyramiden once had a population numbering over a thousand, and a flourishing community. While on Norwegian territory, ruled by the Governor of Svalbard, the Svalbard Treaty of 1920 granted significant freedoms to signatory states in regards to their economic activities.[3]
Pyramiden – like the two other USSR-owned settlements on Spitsbergen, Grumant and Barentsburg – was administered largely without Norwegian insight, and according to Soviet societal norms. Among the facilities found in the town was a museum, a direct predecessor of the currently existing one.[1][3]
In 1998, a few years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Pyramiden – still owned by Trust Arktikugol – was abandoned. For years it remained a ghost town, with only sporadic human activity.[4] Most of the buildings, and the items in them, were left as they were. After over a decade of decay, Arktikugol started renovated the old "Tulip Hotel" in 2007, upgrading the infrastructure over the next few years to accommodate a minor tourist industry. Since then a handful of Russian workers tasked with maintaining the facilities and guiding tourists visiting from Longyearbyen have been living in Pyramiden.[5][2] In addition to tourist and employee housing, the hotel houses a museum, which shares a room – adjacent from the hotel bar – with a souvenir shop and a postal office.[1]
See also
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References
edit- ^ a b c Andreassen, Elin; Bjerck, Hein; Olsen, Bjørnar Olsen (2010). Persistent Memories: Pyramiden - a Soviet Mining Town in the High Arctic. Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press. pp. 40, 178 and 203. ISBN 978-825-192-436-8.
- ^ a b "Пирамида". www.arcticugol.ru (in Russian). Arktikugol. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ^ a b Graves-Brown, Paul; Harrison, Rodney; Piccini, Angela, eds. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Contemporary World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 211–216. ISBN 978-019-960-200-1.
- ^ Umbreit, Andreas (2005). Spitsbergen: Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Jan Mayen. Chalfont St Peter: Bradt Travel Guides. p. 199. ISBN 184-162-092-0.
- ^ Saim, Khandemer (2014). SVALBARD: A Country of Icy Dreams. AKMERCAN. p. 15.