Narsarmijit, formerly Narsaq Kujalleq and Frederiksdal, is a settlement in southern

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

. It is located in the

Kujalleq Kujalleq ( Greenlandic: , da, Den Syden, lit=The South) is a municipality on the southern tip of Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. The administrative center of the municipality is in Qaqortoq (formerly called Julianehåb). Creation ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

near Cape Thorvaldsen. Its population was 66 in 2020. There has been a slow but steady pattern of emigration since the late 1950s.

Geography

Narsarmijit is the southernmost settlement in the country, located approximately north of Cape Farewell, the southern cape of Greenland.

History

The city is located in the area of the easternmost of the Norse settlements during their colonization of Greenland. The former village of Ikigait is roughly away and was the site of Herjólfr Bárðarson's farm

Herjolfsnes Herjolfsnes was a Norsemen, Norse settlement in Greenland, 50 km northwest of Cape Farewell, Greenland, Cape Farewell. It was established by Herjulf Bårdsson, Herjolf Bardsson in the late 10th century and is believed to have lasted some 500 ...

("Herjolf's Point"). The Moravian missionary Conrad Kleinschmidt (1768–1832)Del, Anden.
''Grønland som del af den bibelske fortælling – en 1700-tals studie''
" Greenland as Part of the Biblical Narrative – a Study of the 18th-Century" founded the station of Friedrichsthal ( da, Frederiksdal, lit. "Frederick's Valley") in 1824. The name honored Frederick VI of Denmark. The station was the Moravian's fourth, after

Neu-Herrnhut Old Nuuk may refer to several neighborhoods of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The Lutheran mission was originally based on Hope Island at the head of the fjord but was moved to the mainland and christened Godthaab by the royal governor Claus Paa ...

(1733), Lichtenfels (1748), and Lichtenau (1774) and before

Umanak Uummannaq is a town in the Avannaata municipality, in central-western Greenland. With 1,407 inhabitants in 2020, it is the eighth-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal. Founded in 1763 as Omenak, t ...

(1861) and

Idlorpait Idlorpait is a former Moravian mission in southernmost Greenland located between the missions at Lichtenau and Friedrichsthal.Lüdecke, Cornelia.East Meets West: Meteorological observations of the Moravians in Greenland and Labrador since the 18 ...

(1864). All the

Greenland missions The Moravian missions in Greenland ( kl, Qatanngutigiinniat; da, Brødremenigheden; german: Herrnhuters) were established by the Moravian Church or United Brethren and operated between 1733 and 1900. They were operated under the auspices of the R ...

were surrendered to the Lutheran church in 1900. In the 19th century, the area served as a prime territory for sealing. Members of the settlement rescued the survivors of the ill-fated

German polar expedition The German North Polar Expeditions were a short series of mid-19th century German expeditions to the Arctic. The aim was to explore the North Pole region and to brand the newly united, Prussian-led German Empire as a great power. In 1866, German g ...

's ''Hansa'' in 1870.The 1869/70 German North Polar Expedition
. In 1906, pastor Jens Chemnitz founded Greenland's first sheep farm in Narsarmijit; the industry has since moved north to the larger pastures around

Narsaq Narsaq is a town in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. The name ''Narsaq'' is Kalaallisut for "Plain", referring to the shore of Tunulliarfik Fjord where the town is located. History People have lived in the area for thousands o ...

. Until December 31, 2008, the settlement belonged to the Nanortalik municipality. Since the administrative reform enacted on January 1, 2009, the settlement has been part of Kujalleq.

Transport

The village is served by the Narsarmijit Heliport.

Air Greenland Air Greenland A/S (formerly named Grønlandsfly), also known as Greenlandair, is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, owned by the Greenlandic Government. It operates a fleet of 32 aircraft, including 1 airliner used for transatlantic and ch ...

district helicopters link the settlement with

Nanortalik Nanortalik (), formerly Nennortalik, is a town in Nanortalik Island, Kujalleq municipality, southern Greenland. With 1,185 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the eleventh-largest town in the country. The name ''Nanortalik'' means "Place of Polar Bear ...

, and further to

Qaqortoq Qaqortoq, formerly Julianehåb, is a city in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland, located near Cape Thorvaldsen. With a population of 3,050 in 2020, it is the most populous town and the municipal capital in southern Greenland and the ...

and

Narsarsuaq Narsarsuaq (lit. ''Great Plan'';''Facts and History of Narsarsuaq'', Narsarsuad Tourist Information old spelling: ''Narssarssuaq'') is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. It had 123 inhabitants in 2020. There is a thri ...

Population

Most towns and settlements in southern Greenland exhibit negative growth patterns over the last two decades, with many settlements rapidly depopulating. The population of Narsarmijit has decreased nearly a half relative to the 1990 levels, by nearly a quarter relative to the 2000 levels.Statistics Greenland

References

{{Abandoned sites in Greenland Populated places in Greenland History of the Greenland work of the Moravian Church Populated places established in 1824