Dying Was Once Illegal in a Norwegian Town

In the world's northernmost town of Longyearbyen, the ground itself presents a unique challenge to the end of life. The Arctic settlement on the Svalbard archipelago is built on permafrost, a layer of permanently frozen (Review) soil. This extreme cold effectively halts the natural process of decomposition, meaning bodies buried in the local cemetery are preserved in the shallow graves rather than returning to the earth.

This chilling reality became a pressing public health concern following a startling discovery. In the 1950s, it became clear that the bodies of miners who had perished in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic were so well-preserved that the deadly virus might still be viable within them. Fearing a potential outbreak from the town’s own cemetery, local authorities decided to halt all future burials to protect the living community from a resurrected plague.

Consequently, while not a criminal offense, the town has a firm policy against dying there. Residents who become terminally ill are flown to the Norwegian mainland for their final days and burial. The Longyearbyen cemetery stopped accepting new bodies decades ago, although in recent years, it has begun allowing the interment of cremated remains in urns, providing a modern solution to its unique, frozen problem.