Pyramiden: Culture House

The big, old Cul­tu­re House is stan­ding at the end of the Pro­spekt (Ave­nue). Of cour­se, acti­vi­ties wit­hin cul­tu­re and sports were of vital impor­t­ance for a small, iso­la­ted com­mu­ni­ty, espe­cial­ly during the long polar night. But bey­ond this, the Cul­tu­re House used to be a cen­tral and very important place in any sett­le­ment of Sov­jet cul­tu­ral imprint. It used to be cen­tral­ly loca­ted and a lar­ge, repre­sen­ta­ti­ve buil­ding with good faci­li­ties. The­re were a lar­ge sta­ge for theat­re, con­certs and cine­ma, libra­ry sports hall and exer­cise room.

The sports hall is also part of this sov­jet-style cul­tu­re house.

Pyra­mi­den was aban­do­ned in 1998. In 1997 and 1998, I did a cou­p­le of long hiking tours in Dick­son Land (the lar­ge land area around Pyra­mi­den). After finis­hing the tour in Pyra­mi­den, it was not unusu­al to play foot­ball with the locals here in the sports hall – with hea­vy hiking boots, of cour­se we didn’t have anything else 🙂

The sports hall from a cen­tral per­spec­ti­ve. Note the floor (move the pano view down).

An 1980s style exer­cise room. No well­ness cen­ter, but a lot of hea­vy iron weights. Pro­bab­ly the real thing for any Schwar­zen­eg­ger-fan, others may rather con­si­der this a tor­tu­re cham­ber.

Exer­cise room.

On the first floor, the­re were a well-sto­cked libra­ry and several rooms whe­re music, dan­cing and thea­ter were prac­ti­ced.

The stairs lea­ding up from the ent­ran­ce hall to the second floor.

Several prac­ti­ce rooms were avail­ab­le on the second floor of the Cul­tu­re House to learn artis­tic skills wit­hin music, theat­re and dan­cing.

One of several rooms on the second floor of the cul­tu­re house.

In 2018, work star­ted to put parts of the cul­tu­re house back into use. In the future, we may again be able to enjoy con­certs and film fes­ti­vals here.

Cine­ma­to­graph room with old film mate­ri­al, part­ly spread out on the floor. I won­der if it could be saved? Ima­gi­ne a cine­ma evening here in the Cul­tu­re Hous with the same films that they used to see back then!

← Back

Do you agree that spitsbergen-svalbard.com is a gre­at re­source for any arc­tic enthu­si­ast?

Ever­ything is avail­ab­le for free, no pay­wall, no regis­tra­ti­on, no paid adver­ti­sing, and all this in spi­te of con­stant cos­ts and effort. Plea­se help us to keep it that way, without pay­wall and paid ads, and sup­port us through Steady!

By the way:

New book

my new book is in print and it can now be orde­red 🙂 it is a pho­to book with the tit­le “Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (3): Die Bären­in­sel und Jan May­en”, with Ger­man text Click here for fur­ther details!