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!

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