Пирамида – поселок времен Советского Союза, located behind the Arctic Circle on the Svalbard archipelago. Until 1998, a coal mine operated in these places, which is considered the northernmost in the world. After several decades of work, it was decided to close for a variety of reasons. Among them, a fire that suddenly arose at the mine, as well as difficulties during its suppression, the default of 1998, small reserves of coal and the unprofitability of restoration work.
Svalbard treatise
The first Swedish settlement, which arose at the footPyramidal Mountains, was founded in 1910. The future village of Pyramid is located on the coast of the Mimer and Petunia bays. It all started with the fact that Bertil Högbom managed to get the right to extract coal in these places. The following year they began to build and equip a mine here. The new development was located not far from the Barentsburg mine, which was already operating at that time. The Swedes had to extract the rock at a height of half a kilometer above sea level right in the bowels of the mountain.
Two years later, Russian polar explorers came here,who found more than three dozen deposits of good quality coal. Several countries weakened by the First World War, claimed the archipelago, but in 1920 they were able to agree among themselves. As a result, on February 9 in Paris, they signed an agreement, known as the Spitsbergen Treaty, which consolidated the international legal status of this archipelago.
Affiliation
Изначально Шпицберген считался свободной territory, but according to this document, from now on it was approved by the sovereignty of Norway. The rest of the countries that signed the treatise got equal rights to use the natural resources of the archipelago and the adjacent territorial waters.
In 1925, the Kingdom of Norway was officiallydeclared Svalbard their own. In addition, it pledged not to use it for military purposes, that is, to prevent the construction of any fortifications or naval bases here. The possibility of the existence of the village Pyramid on Svalbard appeared due to the fact that in 1935 the Soviet Union joined the treaty.
Mine construction and destruction
At first the company was the owner of the landSpetsbergens Svenska Kolfalt, until they were bought out by the Anglo-Russian Grumant Society. In 1927, the owner of the mine was already the trust “Severoles”, and four years later it began to belong to “Arktikuglu”. The construction of a new mine at the foot of the Pyramid began in mid-1939. It lasted for two years, until in August 1941 all the inhabitants of the archipelago had to be evacuated.
At that time, 99 people lived in the village.A technical warehouse, a diesel station, a bathhouse and a dormitory have already been built there. A residential house, a radio station, a dining room, a boiler room, as well as the passage of haulage and ventilation galleries remained at the construction stage. Immediately before the evacuation, the employees themselves destroyed all the equipment and coal storage.
Return to Svalbard
The beginning of the grand construction of the villageThe pyramid is considered the summer of 1946. Then 609 polar explorers arrived here. The first street in the village appeared in the spring of next year. Subsequently, active geological exploration was carried out on these lands, as well as test development, where coal mining was carried out.
In the years 1960-1980 in the village of Pyramid (there is a photo inarticle) already lived more than 1,000 people. At this time, the infrastructure started to develop here rather quickly. In a short time it was not only the shallow port that was used for the shipment of coal, but also houses, a school, a library, and even a theater! A little later, the House of Culture and a sports complex were built here, on the territory of which a heated pool is located, which is still considered the northernmost in the world.
Closing
In 1997 it was decided to liquidatemine. Then she worked at only 57% of its capacity. This state of affairs was associated with complex geological conditions. The main reasons for the closure of the mine were high mining costs and limited coal resource. In addition, expenditures on the localization of endogenous fire in the mine in 1970, which, incidentally, continues to this day, continued to grow. The last ton of coal was mined at the Severnaya mine in March 1998.
Revival
It is often called an abandoned village.The pyramid, but in fact it is just mothballed. The difference between these two concepts is huge. In contrast to the "abandoned", "canned" means only that after some time people will come back here and the development of the village will continue.
Some steps are already being taken to hisrevival, but not as a coal mining village, but as one of the tourist zones on the territory of the Svalbard archipelago. For example, the Tulip Hotel was recently renovated, a restaurant was opened and the first three individual cabins were ready to receive guests, standing in the port. Also, the company "Arktikugol" partially restored the water supply of the village Pyramid, sewage and engineering heating networks. In addition, a diesel station and new boilers were put into operation. A lot of tourists have already reached here. They are looking at with great interest not only the buildings of the times of the USSR, but also the unique local natural landscape, the glacier, as well as the mountain itself, which gave the name to the village.
