Smeerenburg

Smeerenburg
Dutch-Danish whaling station (1619–1657)
Ghost town
Smeerenburg is located in Svalbard
Smeerenburg
Smeerenburg
Location in northwestern Svalbard
Coordinates: 79°43′54″N 10°59′42″E / 79.73167°N 10.99500°E / 79.73167; 10.99500
Country Norway
SysselSvalbard
IslandSpitsbergen
Settled1619
Closure1657
Population
 • Total
0
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)+2
Remains of blubber ovens at Smeerenburg
"The train oil cookery of the Amsterdam chamber of the Northern Company at Smeerenburg". Painting by Cornelis de Man (1639), based on a painting of a "Dansk hvalfangststation" (Danish whaling station) by ABR Speeck (1634).
Map of the original Smeerenburg, with trade huts (red) and oil boilers (green). The names denote which city owned the relevant facilities.

Smeerenburg was a whaling settlement on Amsterdam Island in northwest Svalbard. It was founded by the Danish and Dutch in 1619 as one of Europe's northernmost outposts. With the local bowhead whale population soon decimated and whaling developed into a pelagic industry, Smeerenburg was abandoned around 1660.