Barentsburg

Few settlements in Svalbard have histories as closely tied to coal mining as Barentsburg. Set on the shore of Grønfjorden, a side fjord of Isfjorden on Spitsbergen, it is one of the archipelago’s principal Russian settlements. The Dutch founded it as a mining community in the 1920s; in 1932 it passed to the Soviet state trust Arktikugol. Russian signs, Soviet-era monuments and the Pomor Museum give its compact streets a distinct identity within Norwegian Svalbard. Steep Arctic mountains rise behind the settlement, while the fjord leads toward the wider waters of Isfjorden. Discover other points of interest through webcams located across Svalbard.

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