Longyearbyen and the Svalbard Museum

About this place

Longyearbyen is the capital and largest settlement of Norway's Svalbard archipelago and one of the northernmost inhabited places on Earth, home to around 2,400 to 2,800 people. It stretches along the foot of Longyear Valley and the shore of Adventfjorden, an inlet off Isfjorden on the west coast of Spitsbergen. It was founded by the American businessman John Munro Longyear, whose company began mining coal here in 1906, and it was called Longyear City until 1926. A Norwegian company later took over the mining, and for decades it was a coal company town, before most mining stopped and it turned towards research and tourism. Colourful wooden houses line the streets between snow-covered mountains, the remains of old mining works stand on the slopes, and road signs warn of polar bears. The Svalbard Museum, in the university centre building, tells the archipelago's story from the first whalers to today along with its wildlife and plants, and won the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 2008. Walking around town is free, and the museum charges entry. Never leave town without an armed guide because of polar bears; summer brings the midnight sun, and winter long polar nights and the northern lights.