|
Longyearbyen (lit. Longyear City) is the largest settlement and the administrative center of Svalbard, Norway. As of 2008, the town had a population of 2,040. Longyearbyen is located in the valley of Longyeardalen and on the shore of Adventfjorden, a bay of Isfjorden located on the west coast of Spitsbergen. Since 2002, Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities of a municipality, including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire department, roads and ports. The town is the seat of the Governor of Svalbard. It is the world's northernmost settlement of any kind with greater than 1,000 permanent residents. Known as Longyear City until 1926, the town was established by and named after John Munro Longyear, whose Arctic Coal Company started coal mining operations in 1906. Operations were taken over by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani (SNSK) in 1916, which still conducts mining. The town was almost completely destroyed by the German ''Kriegsmarine'' on 8 August 1943, but was rebuilt after the Second World War. Traditionally, Longyearbyen was a company town, but most mining operations have moved to Sveagruva since the 1990s, while the town has seen a large increase in tourism and research. This has seen the arrival of institutions such as the University Centre in Svalbard, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and Svalbard Satellite Station. The community is served by Svalbard Airport, Longyear and Svalbard Church. ==History== In 1896, Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab started tours to Hotellneset. To accommodate tourists, they built a prefabricated hotel, but it was not profitable and was closed after the 1897 season. However, two families overwintered in 1898–99〔Holm (1999): 55〕 and Norway Post operated a post office at Hotellneset from 1897 to 1899.〔Holm (1999): 104〕 The first commercially viable coal on Svalbard was harvested by Søren Zakariassen in 1899.〔Holm (1999): 45〕 In 1901, Bergen-Spitsbergen Kullgrube-kompani started mining coal in Adventtoppen.〔Holm (1999): 46〕 The American industrialist John Munroe Longyear visited Spitsbergen as a tourist in 1901, where he met with an expedition prospecting for coal. He returned to Spitsbergen 1903, where he met Henrik B. Næss in Adventfjorden, who gave him samples and information on coal fields. Along with his associate Frederick Ayer, Longyear bought the Norwegian claims on the west side of Adventfjorden, and expanded the claims significantly the following year. In 1906, the Boston-based Arctic Coal Company, with Ayer and Longyear as the main shareholders, started mining in Mine 1a, after having built docks and housing. The company had American administration, but mostly Norwegian laborers, and named the town Longyear City.〔 Coal was transported the from the mine to the port using an aerial tramway.〔Holm (1999): 148〕 In 1913, the company started preliminary work to open Mine 2a.〔Holm (1999): 47〕 Following financial difficulties during the First World War,〔 the mining operations were bought by Store Norske, which was incorporated in Oslo on 30 November 1916.〔Holm (1999): 119〕 That year, SNSK built five new barracks, including one that was made into a hospital.〔Holm (1999): 83〕 SNSK introduced its own money with approval from Norges Bank, consisting entirely of banknotes at par with Norwegian krone.〔Holm (1999): 116〕 The American community buried their dead at Hotellneset. In 1918, eleven people were killed by the Spanish flu and a graveyard was established in Longyear City.〔Holm (1999): 64〕 Two years later, 26 men were killed in a coal dust explosion in Mine 1. This resulted in the mine being closed〔 and electric operation being taken into use in Mine 2.〔 The same year, the first truck was delivered for use in the mining operations.〔Holm (1999): 69〕 The Church of Norway appointed Thorleif Østenstad as Svalbard's first vicar and teacher in 1920.〔Holm (1999): 126〕 A school was established as a cooperation between the church and SNSK and had an inaugural eight pupils.〔Holm (1999): 114〕 The first Svalbard Church opened on 28 August 1921,〔 and the church's reading room was from then used as a school.〔 Longyear City was renamed Longyearbyen in 1926.〔Holm (1999): 85〕 The Norwegian Telecommunications Administration established a coast radio station, Svalbard Radio, at Finneset in 1911, which was moved to Longyearbyen in 1930.〔Holm (1999): 149〕 The town's tourist industry started in 1935, when SS ''Lyngen'' started calling regularly during the summer season.〔Holm (1999): 153〕 In 1937, SNSK established Sverdrupbyen to house workers for Mine 1b and operation of the mine started in 1939.〔Holm (1999): 143〕 In 1938, Longyearbyen's first road was completed, between the town center and Sverdrupbyen.〔Holm (1999): 166〕 Operations at Mine 2b, a different entrance to Mine 2a, started in 1939.〔 Svalbard remained unaffected by the German occupation of Norway in 1940. However, from 1941 the achipelago became of strategic importance in the supply chain between the Allied powers, as well as a source of badly needed coal. The Norwegian government-in-exile rejected a Soviet–British occupation;〔Arlov (1994): 74〕 instead the British Army started Operation Gauntlet to evacuate Spitsbergen. On 29 August 1941, the entire population of Ny-Ålesund was evacuated to Longyearbyen, and on 3 September 765 people were evacuated from Longyearbyen to Scotland. Later the last 150 men were also evacuated.〔Holm (1999): 73〕 With Longyearbyen depopulated, a small German garrison and air strip was established in Adventdalen, mostly to provide meteorological data. After the British Operation Fritham regained control of Barentsburg, the German forces left Longyearbyen without combat.〔Arlov (1994): 75〕 In September 1943, the ''Kriegsmarine'' dispatched two battleships, ''Tirpitz'' and ''Scharnhorst'', and nine destroyers to bombard Longyearbyen, Barentsburg and Grumant.〔 Only four buildings in Longyearben survived: the hospital, the power station, an office building and a residential building, in addition to Sverdrupbyen. Longyearbyen remained unsettled until the end of the war, with the first ship from the mainland leaving on 27 June 1945.〔Holm (1999): 74〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Longyearbyen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|