With just 2,000 inhabitants, Longyearbyen is Svalbard‘s largest settlement and one of the world’s northernmost towns. As the administrative centre of the Svalbard archipelago, it features just about everything from modern society: a hospital, university, sports centre, library, cultural centre, cinema, bank, airport and a small variety of shops, restaurants and hotels.
Longyearbyen is situated on the west coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the archipelago, on the southern edge of Adventfjorden. Owing to its location far north of the Arctic Circle, this region is in polar night from late October to mid-February, and in polar day from mid-April to late August.
