Pyramiden
Norway
In 1998, the settlement lost its last remaining inhabitant, thus rendering it a ghost town. This is a marvelous place to capture Soviet architecture and a Northern settlement fixed in time.
Contents
11 sections · tap a section for its opening lines1Orientation
Welcome to Pyramiden, a settlement that exists at the very edge of the habitable world, located deeply within the high Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. As we disembark from the ferry that carried us across the frigid waters from…
Listen in the app2The Port and Scrap Metal Yard
Our journey begins exactly where the history of Pyramiden intersected with the outside world: the industrial port. As you look around this waterfront area, you will immediately notice the sheer volume of rusted scrap metal,…
Listen in the app3The Pristine Main Street
As we walk up from the port and enter the central thoroughfare of Pyramiden, a profoundly unsettling realization often washes over visitors. We instinctively compare abandoned places to the world's most famous ghost town:…
Listen in the app4Hotel Pyramiden
We have now arrived at Hotel Pyramiden, a structure that neatly encapsulates the surreal, dual identity of this settlement today. From the outside, the building is a quintessential slab of uncompromising Soviet architecture, a…
Listen in the app5The Schoolhouse
Standing before us is the educational heart of Pyramiden: the settlement's schoolhouse. For visitors who were born and raised in the Soviet Union during the 1980s and 1990s, crossing the threshold of this building is often…
Listen in the app6The Cultural Centre, Gym, and Pool
We now enter the grand Cultural Centre, arguably the most important ideological building in Pyramiden. You must remember that Pyramiden was never a purely economic endeavor; in fact, the coal extraction here was notoriously…
Listen in the app7The Cinema and Film Archives
Deep within the cultural complex lies one of Pyramiden’s most spectacular and unexpected treasures: the grand cinema and its accompanying film storage archive. In an era long before high-speed internet and digital streaming,…
Listen in the app8The KGB Quarters
As we move away from the spaces of leisure and culture, we arrive at a building with a distinctly more sinister atmosphere: the local headquarters of the KGB. Even here, in a utopian showcase situated at the extreme edge of the…
Listen in the app9The Residential Hostel and Canteen
We now step into the primary residential block and the legendary central canteen, the spaces where the daily domestic life of Pyramiden truly unfolded. Architecture here was designed to foster a sense of collective unity while…
Listen in the app10The Coal Mine Base
Looking upward from the edge of the residential zone, your eyes are drawn to the looming, jagged infrastructure clinging desperately to the side of the mountain. This is the base of the Pyramiden coal mine, the ostensible reason…
Listen in the app11Closing
As our walking tour of Pyramiden comes to a close, and we begin making our way back toward the ferry that will return us to the modern world, it is essential to reflect on the deep, almost poetic irony that permeates this frozen…
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What is Pyramiden?
Pyramiden is a place in Norway with 11 story sections on Tellby. You can read the opening of each section on this page; the sound plays in the app.
| Location | Norway |
|---|---|
| Type | Activity |
| Story sections | 11 |
| Text language | English |
| Coordinates | 78.6560, 16.3275 |
| Last updated |