Airship mast
Polar flights.
patano — CC BY-SA 3.0 · patano — CC BY-SA 3.0 · patano — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cmichel67 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Antony Stanley from Gloucester, UK — CC BY-SA 2.0
Ny-Ålesund is a small settlement on the Brøgger peninsula on the shore of Kongsfjorden, in the west of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago, about 113 km in a straight line north-west of Longyearbyen. It is the northernmost functioning civilian settlement in the world. It was founded in 1917 by Peter Brandal and his mining company, and coal mining there was on and off until it ended for good in the 1960s. In the 1920s air expeditions set off from here towards the North Pole, and an iron mast once used to moor airships before those flights still stands. Today the town is a research centre, hosting permanent facilities for about 19 institutions from 11 countries, with only 30 to 35 year-round residents, rising to around 114 in summer. Its colourful wooden houses look out over the fjord and sharp snow-covered peaks, and it has a small town and mining museum. It is usually reached by cruise ship or on paid trips from Longyearbyen. Visitors are asked to respect local rules to protect the research instruments, and leaving the settlement without a guide is not allowed because of polar bears.
Polar flights.
On the fjord.
Mining history.
Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen, Svalbard
By cruise ship or on trips from Longyearbyen.
30 to 35 people year-round.