As we all know, this year is the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, so it seemed like a fitting time for my 2nd trip into the zone.
Pripyat was a city in the Ukraine built to house workers for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. At its height it had around 50,000 inhabitants with provision for up to 70,000.
The city was built in a triangular plan and featured alternating five-story buildings and high-rises, with the city lined with broad vistas, open spaces, and the horizon visible from almost every corner. Unlike the old cities with their tiny yards and narrow streets, Pripyat had been initially planned to look free and vivid, all for the comfort of its inhabitants. Besides the calculated boost of street space, the goal had been achieved by making the streets and blocks symmetrical. Taken together, these solutions were intended to immunize Pripyat from such scourges of modern times as traffic jams.
Facilities in the city included:
- Population: 49,400 before the disaster. The average age was about 26 years old. Total living space was 658,700 m2: 13,414 apartments in 160 apartment blocks, 18 halls of residence accommodating up to 7,621 single males or females, and 8 halls of residence for married couples.
- Education: 15 primary schools for about 5,000 children, 5 secondary schools, 1 professional school.
- Healthcare: 1 hospital that could accommodate up to 410 patients, and 3 clinics.
- Trade: 25 stores and malls; 27 cafes, cafeterias and restaurants could serve up to 5,535 customers simultaneously. 10 warehouses could hold 4,430 tons of goods.
- Culture: 3 facilities: a culture palace, a cinema and a school of arts, with 8 different societies.
- Sports: 10 gyms, 3 indoor swimming-pools, 10 shooting galleries, 2 stadiums.
- Recreation: 1 park, 35 playgrounds, 18,136 trees, 249,247 shrubs, 33,000 rose plants.
- Industry: 4 factories with total annual turnover of 477,000,000 rubles. 1 nuclear power plant.
- Transportation: Yanov railway station, 167 urban buses, plus the nuclear power plant car park of about 400 units.
- Telecommunication: 2,926 local phones managed by the Prypiat Phone Company, plus 1,950 phones owned by Chernobyl power station's administration, Jupiter plant and Department of Architecture and Urban Development.
On 26th April 1986 an experiment involving a power-down of the reactor caused an explosion at Reactor 4. The resulting fire burned for over 9 days, sending radioactive clouds over most of Europe. The inhabitants of Pripyat were told to take a minimum of belongings for a temporary evacuation, and everyone was bussed out of the city over 48hours. Little did they know they were never to return, and this is the city today.
View over the main square
Boxing Ring
Sports Hall
Restaurant
Swimming Pool Exterior
Swimming Pool
Classroom
Trees inside the city. Notice the redness from half way up, all the bark had died and fallen off.
Bumper Cars
The infamous ferris wheel
Abacus found in the hospital
Hospital
Hospital Desk
Hospital Staircase
Operating Theatre
Bus Station
Inside the Bus Station
I didn't want to make this one of those 10 part extravaganzas, so i've tried to keep it fairly to-the-point.
If anyone is interested, the rest of the set can be found on my flickr page . I've still got thousands more shots to go through so i'll be adding them up there for a while yet.
Pripyat was a city in the Ukraine built to house workers for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. At its height it had around 50,000 inhabitants with provision for up to 70,000.
The city was built in a triangular plan and featured alternating five-story buildings and high-rises, with the city lined with broad vistas, open spaces, and the horizon visible from almost every corner. Unlike the old cities with their tiny yards and narrow streets, Pripyat had been initially planned to look free and vivid, all for the comfort of its inhabitants. Besides the calculated boost of street space, the goal had been achieved by making the streets and blocks symmetrical. Taken together, these solutions were intended to immunize Pripyat from such scourges of modern times as traffic jams.
Facilities in the city included:
- Population: 49,400 before the disaster. The average age was about 26 years old. Total living space was 658,700 m2: 13,414 apartments in 160 apartment blocks, 18 halls of residence accommodating up to 7,621 single males or females, and 8 halls of residence for married couples.
- Education: 15 primary schools for about 5,000 children, 5 secondary schools, 1 professional school.
- Healthcare: 1 hospital that could accommodate up to 410 patients, and 3 clinics.
- Trade: 25 stores and malls; 27 cafes, cafeterias and restaurants could serve up to 5,535 customers simultaneously. 10 warehouses could hold 4,430 tons of goods.
- Culture: 3 facilities: a culture palace, a cinema and a school of arts, with 8 different societies.
- Sports: 10 gyms, 3 indoor swimming-pools, 10 shooting galleries, 2 stadiums.
- Recreation: 1 park, 35 playgrounds, 18,136 trees, 249,247 shrubs, 33,000 rose plants.
- Industry: 4 factories with total annual turnover of 477,000,000 rubles. 1 nuclear power plant.
- Transportation: Yanov railway station, 167 urban buses, plus the nuclear power plant car park of about 400 units.
- Telecommunication: 2,926 local phones managed by the Prypiat Phone Company, plus 1,950 phones owned by Chernobyl power station's administration, Jupiter plant and Department of Architecture and Urban Development.
On 26th April 1986 an experiment involving a power-down of the reactor caused an explosion at Reactor 4. The resulting fire burned for over 9 days, sending radioactive clouds over most of Europe. The inhabitants of Pripyat were told to take a minimum of belongings for a temporary evacuation, and everyone was bussed out of the city over 48hours. Little did they know they were never to return, and this is the city today.
View over the main square
Boxing Ring
Sports Hall
Restaurant
Swimming Pool Exterior
Swimming Pool
Classroom
Trees inside the city. Notice the redness from half way up, all the bark had died and fallen off.
Bumper Cars
The infamous ferris wheel
Abacus found in the hospital
Hospital
Hospital Desk
Hospital Staircase
Operating Theatre
Bus Station
Inside the Bus Station
I didn't want to make this one of those 10 part extravaganzas, so i've tried to keep it fairly to-the-point.
If anyone is interested, the rest of the set can be found on my flickr page . I've still got thousands more shots to go through so i'll be adding them up there for a while yet.
