“Frozen Apartments of Vorkuta”: Incredible Photos from The Heart of The Coldest City in All of Europe
Vorkuta (Nenets for “the abundance of bears”, “bear corner”) is a coal-mining town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin at the river Vorkuta. Vorkuta is the fourth largest city north of the Arctic Circle and the easternmost town in Europe. It is also the coldest city in all of Europe, boasting a record cold temperature of -52 degrees C (-61 degrees F). Continue reading »
Nevermind In Sovietland By Photographer Tomeu Coll
Vorkuta, Russia, 2009
The town, once home to a thriving coal mining industry, is full of abandoned buildings that the government does not have funds to repair. The extremes in temperature (in winter it can get as cold as -40C) make the buildings unstable and liable to collapse.
Up above the Arctic Circle, 40 hours by train from Moscow, sits the Russian city of Vorkuta. It was built by gulag inmates but was given purpose by the coal industry that used to be the region’s lifeblood. Now mining has disappeared, leaving many of its outposts abandoned. Tomeu Coll’s 2009 photo essay Nevermind Sovietland hauntingly records the lives of those who still live there… Continue reading »
