Barentsburg

Barentsburg looking up from the port

[Barentsburg from an airplane]

Barentsburg looking down from the airplane

Barentsburg, Russian mining settlement, is situated on the sunny east slope of Greenfjorden.
The Russian company " Trust Arktikugol " has been mining here since it bought the settlement from the Netherlands in 1932.
However, the mining seems to have been stopped due to fire on 17th Apr., '08.
map

1	Boat landing	2	Harbor Master
3	Stolovaya, Bakery, Cafe and carteen	4	Town Square, Platform, Souvenior Stall
5	Gymnasium	6	Library, Hall, Theater
7	Trust Arktikgol	8	Pomor Museum
9	Hotel Barentsburg	10	Lenin statue
11	Ice Cream Cafe	12	Russian Council
13	Hockey ground	14	Alexandre Football pitch
15	Green House (Vegetable, Pigs, etc.)	16	Heliport 2km
17	Hospital	18	Researcher
19	To Mine	20	To Longyearbyen
21	To Power Plant

Landing to Barentsburg

From the wharf, a charming woman guided us. "Welcome to Barentsburg. Please go up the stairs with 263 steps to the town center."

MAP between 2 and 3
At the middle of the stairs, there remained four abandoned houses, old miners residences.
After the ascent of the stairs, I reached a square where I admired a fine view of the port and the fjord.

MAP 3
A large building is the miner's cafeteria, men often went in and out the wooden door.

MAP 4
There were many booth selling souvenirs in the town square near the cafeteria. Norwegian currency is available even in Barentsburg.
The commissary notes issued by Trust Arktikugol had been available in the settlement since 1931. I would like to see them, however, could not get any informations about them. The guide taught me a unique credit system and no money here. (In fact, coins are circulated.)


MAP 5 The sports-club (Gymnasium) was also a large building with a 25 metre swimming pool and a gymnasium. A five-ringed Olympic symbol was hung out in the front of the building. A theater with a concert hall stood neighboring the sports-club, however, to my regret, I do not rember it.	Residents collected flowers. The blue board is to celebrate excellent workers, reminding the period of the Soviet Union.

A house with a usual appearance for living in was an indoor farm calling "our green house". Vegetables such as tomato, cucumber, and onion were cultivated in it. The guide said the vegitables were expensive.

Pomor Museum (Map 8)

The main street, paved with stone, turned to right at the corner of the theater.
[Building of the museum]

There was the Pomor Museum close by the corner, and I visited it. "Pomor" means Russian people living in the White Sea area. "Po" and "more" mean "by" and "sea", respectively.
The museum is introduced by "Lonely Planet" as "you should rush into the museum during the tour"
attention

You can see the lights in the museum turned off in the above photo. The lights are considered to be turned on only during the guests in the museum. Is it an idea for reducing electric power?


Ticket (obverse side)	Ticket (reverse side)

Brochure (obverse side)	Brochure (reverse side)

The first floor of the museum contained a souvenir shop, a cloak room, and an art room exhibiting pictures.
In the souvenir shop, even post cards sent from the Russian mainland and notes used in Byelorussia were sold.
I could not obtain the commissary note issued by Trust Arktikugol, of course.
The second floor consisted of seven rooms.

Room 1 Nature	Room 2 Geology

Room 3 XVI - XVIII B. B. Spitsbergen	Room 4 Barents expedition	Room 5 Scientific exploration of Spitsbergen
	No photo
		Rusanov is a Russian explorer.

Room 6 Barentsburg yesterday and today

1920 - 41 Many photos about sea and ship	WWII

Room 6 Barentsburg yesterday and today

Recovery from war during 1946 - 1950	It was a very active era in Barentsburg in 1950s to 1990s. In 1970s, a large scale construction programme gained momentum at Barentsburg including blocks of Mats, a hospital, a kindergarten, a sports completes and a swimming pool. a recreation compien with a movie, a concert hall, and a dance, a public library with a classrooms and last but not least, a set of research buildings.	Scientific research

Room 6 Barentsburg yesterday and today

Photos are considered to be a report of visiting Barensburg by a famous person. An article titled "Spasiba Barentsburg" (written in English). There were photos of Maya Plisetskaya who spent her early childhood here.	Friendship between USSR and Norge	Medals presented to the veterans of the mine worker

Room 7 Mine view

After leaving the museum, I went to Hotel Barentsburg.

Trust Arktikgol

Some workers were waiting (?) in the front of the office. They came here by a vehicle (truck) just before this capture.

Hotel Barentsburg


The hotel stood at the end of the main street. When I visited, the last "r" of "Hotel Barentsburg" was lost.	Norwegian postal and telephone emblem were hung out in the front of the hotel. Though it is difficult to recognize in the above photo, I was putting a drink bottle to a trash. The trash was a penguin opening its mouth, which lives in the Antarctic far from here. The design of the trash seemed to be standardize in Barentsburg, and I found no refuse in the road.


The dining room situated at the first floor. Vodka bottles in the bar was impressive. The interior was kept by fine woods.	I spent some time at a souvenir shop which sold small dolls, Russian caps, gloves, shoes, and T-shirts. I felt strange that there was a counter selling women's underwear at a corner of the shop.

My visit for 1.5h was over at the hotel.

Valuable informations

Links about Barentsburg
News (now, accident of airplane and mine), Coins and notes.
New gas power plant is hoped to be built in 2006.

[Japanese] Japanese version

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bluemt@lib.bekkoame.ne.jp

Last Modified : 21st July, 2011