Svalbard Museum
The Svalbard Museum in Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen displays objects from the 400-year history of the Svalbard Archipelago and explains the circumstances that made human life and activities on the islands possible.
In different sections it shows the sea with its currents and its fauna as the factor determining the life there, exhibits exhibits from the time of the early explorers and leads to the life of the whalers and the pomors , the Russian fur animals - and walrus - Hunter one. It gives an impression of the life of the polar bear and the reindeer in the icy and dark winter and under the summer midnight sun. One section is dedicated to the Norwegian trappers . The geological peculiarities of the island and the local coal mining are shown as well as the migratory birds on the rocky cliffs of the islands. Finally, an overview of the modern Svalbard between coal mining, research and tourism is given.
The museum opened in 1979 and was housed in the oldest part of Longyearbyen until December 2005. Since then it has been part of the Svalbard Science Center next to the University Center of Svalbard (UNIS), the branch of the Norwegian Polar Institute and the Sysselmannen environmental information office . It is the northernmost museum in the world.
The Svalbard Museum has an extensive collection of claim annexation signs from around 1900, as well as a collection of more than 4,000 photographs, which are to be exhibited gradually in digitized form.
The museum received the Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2008 in competition with 59 other European museums.
Web links
- Svalbard Museum (Norwegian and English)
- European Prize for Svalbard Museum
Coordinates: 78 ° 13 '22.6 " N , 15 ° 38' 58.1" E