Longyearbyen is the northernmost settlement in the world with a population of about two thousand people. It is located on the Svalbard archipelago — in the habitat of polar bears, so literally every local carries a weapon. And there are parking lots for sled dogs and abandoned mines, around which, in fact, this town appeared.
British traveler and journalist Sadie Whitelocks spoke about a summer trip to Longyearbyen, the largest settlement and administrative center of the Norwegian province of Svalbard in the Svalbard archipelago.
“Despite the fact that upon arrival in Longyearbyen it was two o’clock in the morning, it was as bright as day, and the temperature was below 10 degrees Celsius,” the journalist says. — I ventured from Oslo to this tiny city, which has about 2,200 inhabitants. I spent two days there learning about the history of this place, which used to be a coal mining center, and the remnants of its past, which were left to rust in a cold climate.”
The city was named after its founder, engineer-entrepreneur John Munro Longyearbyen, who founded a coal mine here in 1906. In 1916, the settlement was sold to a Norwegian company.
During the Second World War, after the occupation of Norway in 1940, the residents of Longyearbyen were evacuated to the UK. The city itself and many of its mines were destroyed in 1943 by shelling from German warships, but after the war they were quickly rebuilt.
The sign warns residents and visitors that polar bears can be found all over Svalbard.
There is a special relationship with polar bears here. Since Svalbard is the kingdom of bears, literally all residents carry weapons with them in case of an attack, and every student at the local university learns to shoot in the first days of classes.
“It is forbidden to bring pistols and rifles into the store”
Yes, this small settlement has its own university, which makes the capital of Svalbard a unique place: the northernmost university in the world, the northernmost hospital, library, etc. are located here.
Since local residents travel by snowmobiles and dog sleds during the winter months, there are even special “parking lots” for dogs.
The sign “Please don’t leave your dogs here. Parking is provided by flagpoles.”
“Walking along the main street of the city with souvenir and street shops, I decided to continue walking into the valley, where I saw a glacier in the distance. After I passed dozens of colored houses in brick and dark green shades (a special color consultant works in the city so that all buildings are painted in appropriate shades), the landscape around me became wilder,” the journalist continues.
On the dark hillsides, the journalist noticed several abandoned coal mines with wooden shacks.
Coal mining in the city and its surroundings had almost disappeared by the early 1990s, and today the products of the only operating mine in the city are used mainly for the needs of the city’s power plant.
Today, the once mining village has turned into an important tourist center in Norway, where thousands of tourists arrive every year to see the magnificent Arctic nature firsthand.
Since the middle of the 20th century, the authorities have taken a course to normalize life in the city and develop social infrastructure. In the same years, significant development of tourism and research activities began. The opening of the airport in 1975 was an important event for the life of Longyearbyen, which gradually turned into a tourist destination.
An interesting fact: Longyearbyen has a law that prohibits dying on its territory. If someone becomes seriously ill or there is an incident with a potentially fatal outcome, the victim should be immediately transported to another part of Norway, where he will die. But even if death occurs in a city, the dead are buried on the mainland anyway. These measures are caused by the fact that in permafrost conditions, bodies do not decompose at all after burial, and attract the attention of predators.
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