Pripyat Culture Center’s Swimming Pool

Here are a few photos (pre-war) of the community swimming pool in downtown Pripyat.  This spot within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is very close to the iconic Chernobyl Ferris Wheel.

I’m sure that all visitors to Chernobyl visit both the Ferris Wheel and this swimming pool.

My heart continues to break for the people of Ukraine….  I’m going to run out of Ukraine photos soon that I haven’t posted already.  I realize that by posting my Ukraine photos, that it doesn’t help the people of Ukraine.  But I hope in some small way, it keeps them and their situation in our thoughts.

Soviet Propaganda

I found these old Soviet propaganda signs at the back of the Pripyat Cultural Center.  Pripyat had over 49,000 people before it was abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  The Cultural Center building was a great explore. 

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Pripyat Cultural Center

This iconic Chernobyl building is the Cultural Center in the main square of downtown Pripyat.  It has a couple swimming pools, boxing ring, gymnastic equipment, auditorium, exercise rooms, and a bunch of other things.  Right behind this building is where the carnival was setup to start a festival that never happened.  By the way, this structure was a great building to explore.

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Chernobyl Cultural Center Pool

Short post tonight…..  I took this photo of the pool inside the Pripyat Cultural Center.  Pripyat was a large city next to the Chernobyl Power Plant built to support the employees and their families.  All of this is now within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.  As I was exploring the Cultural Center, I happened upon it at the back of the building.  I loved the reflections.

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Chernobyl Fun

I took this photo last October when Blair and I explored Chernobyl and the Exclusion Zone.  We had a great visit.  This is from the Pripyat city center.  The building in this photo is the center piece of city center and was the cultural center.  It has a pool, gym, theater, boxing ring and many other rooms inside it.  Directly behind it, is where the carnival was setup before the nuclear disaster.  All of the carnival rides including the Ferris wheel, still sit there today.  Unfortunately for the citizens of Pripyat, the carnival never happened. 

Prior to our Chernobyl trip, I noticed this is a frequently photographed building.  So I was determined to capture it in a different way.  Therefore, I climbed up on the roof of this walkway to capture it from this perspective.

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Pripyat Cultural Center

It’s been about a month since I posted my last Chernobyl photo.   So for this post, I’m sharing the performance room with the small stage on the right from the Pripyat Cultural Center.  I hope you enjoy it.

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Pripyat Cultural Center

I took this photo inside the cultural center, which is in the City Center of the abandoned city of Pripyat Ukraine.  This town was founded in February 1970 as the ninth nuclear city in the Soviet Union.  It was built to serve and support the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.  Of course, after the nuclear disaster, the city and the entire surrounding area was evacuated. 

In this room, you can see a former boxing ring that was set up.  Note how the sun rays are highlighted in this photo…. That’s not from photo software editing magic….  Simon flew a drone around the room, which kicked up all this dust helping to create this affect (Great idea of Robert’s) 

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