Pyramid - a village from the Soviet Union, located beyond the Arctic Circle on the Svalbard archipelago. Until 1998, a coal mine operated in these places, considered the northernmost in the world. After several decades of work, they decided to close it for a number of reasons. Among them, a fire that suddenly occurred at the mine, as well as difficulties during extinguishing it, the default of 1998, small coal reserves and the unprofitability of restoration work.
Svalbard Treatise
The first Swedish settlement, which appeared at the foot of the pyramidal mountains, was founded in 1910. The future village of Pyramid is located on the coast of Mimer and Petunia bays. It all started with the fact that Bertil Hogbom managed to get the right to mine coal in these places. The following year, they began to build and equip a mine. The new development was not far from the Barentsburg mine, which was already operating at that time. The Swedes had to mine the rock at half a kilometer above sea level right in the bowels of the mountain.
Two years later, Russian polar explorers came here, who discovered more than three dozen deposits of good quality coal. Several countries weakened by the First World War claimed this archipelago, but in 1920 they managed to agree among themselves. As a result, on February 9, in Paris, they signed an agreement known as the “Spitsbergen Treaty,” which secured the international legal status of this archipelago.
Affiliation
Initially, Svalbard was considered free territory, but according to this document, henceforth, the sovereignty of Norway was affirmed over it. The remaining countries that signed the treatise received equal rights to use the natural resources of the archipelago and the adjacent territorial waters.
In 1925, the Kingdom of Norway officially declared Svalbard its. In addition, it undertook 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 of Pyramid on Spitsbergen appeared due to the fact that in 1935 the Soviet Union also joined the treaty.
Mine construction and destruction
At first, the owner of the land was Spetsbergens Svenska Kolfalt, until they were bought out by the English-Russian Grumant company. In 1927, the Severoles Trust was already the owner of the mine, and four years later it became the property of Arktikugl. The construction of a new mine at the foot of the Pyramid Mountain 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, diesel station premises, a bathhouse and a hostel have already been built there. At the construction stage, there remained a residential building, a radio station, a dining room, a boiler room, as well as the passage of a recoil and ventilation adit. Immediately before the evacuation, the employees themselves destroyed all the equipment and the coal warehouse.
Return to Svalbard
The beginning of the grandiose construction of the village of 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 exploration work was carried out on these lands , as well as trial workings, where coal was mined.
In 1960-1980, more than 1000 people lived in the village of Pyramid (photo is in the article). At this time, the infrastructure began to develop quite quickly. In a short time, not only a shallow port was built that served to ship coal, but also residential buildings, a school, a library and even a theater! A little later, the House of Culture and a sports complex began to be erected here, on the territory of which there is a heated pool, which is still considered the northernmost in the world.
Closing
In 1997, a decision was made to liquidate the mine. Then it worked only at 57% of its capacity. This state of affairs was associated with difficult geological conditions. The main reasons for the closure of the mine were high mining costs and a limited coal resource. In addition, expenses for the localization of the endogenous fire that arose in the mine in 1970, which continued, by the way, to this day, continued to grow steadily. The last ton of coal was mined at the Severnaya mine in March 1998.
Rebirth
Very often it is called the abandoned village of Pyramid, but in fact it is just mothballed. The difference between the two is huge. Unlike “abandoned”, “conserved” means only that after some time people will definitely come back here and the development of the village will continue.
Already, some steps are being taken towards its revival, but not as a coal miners' settlement, but as one of the tourist zones on the territory of the Spitsbergen archipelago. For example, the Tulip Hotel has recently been renovated, a restaurant has been opened and the first three individual houses in the port are ready to receive guests. The company “Arktikugol” partially restored the water supply of the village of Pyramid, sewers and utility heating networks. In addition, a diesel station and new boilers were launched. Many tourists have already reached here. They examine 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.