Sompa (Kohtla-Järve)
Sompa is one of the six districts of the Estonian industrial city Kohtla-Järve in the Ida-Viru district . The formerly independent village was incorporated into Kohtla-Järve in 1960.
Description and history
The district is located eight kilometers southwest of the county capital Jõhvi .
Sompa was built from 1947 on the area of the former villages Kohtla-Rutiku and Sompa-Rutiku as a Soviet housing estate (Sompa alev) for the workers of two nearby oil shale mining areas (pits No. 4 and No. 6). The oil shale pits were in operation from 1948 to 1999.
In 1960 Sompa was incorporated into the city of Kohtla-Järve. From 1991 to 1993 the place was independent again before it came back to the city of Kohtla-Järve.
Due to the decline of oil shale mining and the collapse of Soviet heavy industry since the 1990s, the place is today a desolate ghost settlement with numerous empty buildings and abandoned building ruins.
In 2003, around 1,600 people lived in the mostly demolished houses, most of them from the Russian-speaking minority . At the end of 2011, 958 people lived in Sompa, including 172 Estonians . Alcoholism and drug use are common.
Attractions
In the center of the district is the neoclassical house of culture in the Soviet style. It is adorned by a portico with wide columns.
From 1946 to 1948 the Sompa miners house was built. Today it only stands as a ruin.
Web links
- Entry in Eesti Entsüklopeedia (online version)
- Peeter Ernits: Kohtla-Järve loodud põrgu (Estonian)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 59 ° 20 ' N , 27 ° 17' E
