Viivikonna is one of the most famous abandoned places in Estonia. Once a mining town with a population over a couple of thousand people, today it’s a decaying village full of abandoned buildings and ruins surrounding its empty streets.
Viivikonna was started being built in 1935-1936 beside an oil shore mine. It became a town-type settlement in 1950. Viivikonna had a population of 1 800 people in 1959 which increased to 2 200 in 1968. Despite the growth of the number of inhabitants in those years soon the downfall of the town began—in 1974 the mine was closed and people had to move away from Viivikonna in order to find a job.
Today the village is falling into ruin. There’re only around 90 people living there, and most of the buildings are abandoned or already ruined. Walking on the streets of Viivikonna it’s easy to notice that even the ones in use are not in the best conditions. Some of them have huge cracks in the walls, not mentioning that they haven’t been renovated since a long time, also, many of the not abandoned buildings are already in use only partially. All these taken together allows to assume that it’s just a matter of time when the decay will completely overtake the place.
