Ny-Ålesund: Coal grading plant

The lar­ge con­cre­te block used to be the coal gra­ding plant at times when Ny-Åle­sund was still a coal mining sett­le­ment. This was the place whe­re coal was sepa­ra­ted from stone. If you look clo­se­ly, you can still see paint in shape of a cof­fin high up on the wall. The­re is a sto­ry behind this: After the mine acci­dent in 1962 which cau­sed 21 casu­al­ties, the num­ber of vic­tims was pain­ted in lar­ge let­ters on the side of the buil­ding facing the fjord, to remind offi­cial visi­tors of the duties to ensu­re safe­ty in the coal­field that they had neglec­ted. The direc­tor found this a litt­le bit too embarr­as­sing and reques­ted his workers to paint over the figu­res, which they did – in shape of a lar­ge cof­fin. This is still visi­ble when you look from the fjord.

This part of Ny-Åle­sund now loo­ks a bit like an indus­tri­al area, with a lot of con­tai­ners and other stuff being stored here. Not necessa­ri­ly a place of tou­ris­tic inte­rest.

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