Pyramiden was founded by Sweden in 1910 and sold to the
Soviet Union in 1927. It lies at the foot of the
Billefjorden on the island of
Spitsbergen and is named after the pyramid-shaped mountain with the same name adjacent to the town. Owned by the state-owned Russian mining company
Arktikugol, which also owns the settlement of
Barentsburg, Pyramiden had 2,500 inhabitants in the 1950s. Among its amenities were a cultural centre with a theater, a library, art and music studios; a sports complex; and a cantina open 24 hours a day. It also had a primary school. The northernmost monument to
Vladimir Lenin and the northernmost swimming pool were also found here. In 1996, a
charter flight for Arktikugol crashed on the approach to
Svalbard Airport with the loss of 141 lives. Between 1955 and 1998, as much as nine million tonnes of coal were extracted from the mine. Mining ceased on 31 March 1998 and the settlement closed that same year. The last permanent resident departed on 10 October, leaving Pyramiden as a
ghost town. Until 2007, the former settlement remained uninhabited and largely untouched. The buildings' interiors remained largely as they were when the settlement was abandoned. In 2012, Aleksandr Romanovsky became the first person to return to live in Pyramiden. He has since been joined by five others. Romanovsky, a musician and tour guide in the settlement, has called himself the "world's most northern head-banger". Romanovsky has lived for years on his own in this abandoned town. On 27 August 2019, the world's northernmost film festival was held in Pyramiden, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of
Soviet cinema. In 2022, Russia announced new investment plans to support its presence in Pyramiden and
Barentsburg. == Preservation ==