State Kingdom of Denmark Time zone UTC-03 Local time Monday 9:42 PM Municipality Kujalleq | Constituent country Greenland Postal code 3922 Nanortalik Population 97 (2010) Number of airports 1 | |
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Weather -5°C, Wind NW at 32 km/h, 62% Humidity | ||
Narsarmijit (IATA: QFN), formerly Frederiksdal, is a settlement in southern Greenland. It is located in the Kujalleq municipality near Cape Thorvaldsen. Its population was 97 in 2010. There has been a slow but steady pattern of emigration since the late 1950s.
Contents
Map of Narsaq Kujalleq, Greenland
Geography
Narsarmijit is the southernmost settlement in the country, located approximately 50 kilometers (31 mi) 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 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) away and was the site of Herjólfr Bárðarson's farm Herjolfsnes ("Herjolf's Point").
The Moravian missionary Conrad Kleinschmidt (1768–1832) founded the station of Friedrichsthal (Danish: Frederiksdal, lit. "Frederick's Valley") in 1824. The name honored Frederick VI of Denmark. The station was the Moravian's fourth, after Neu-Herrnhut (1733), Lichtenfels (1748), and Lichtenau (1774) and before Umanak (1861) and Idlorpait (1864). All the Greenland missions 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's Hansa in 1870. 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.
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 district helicopters link the settlement with Nanortalik, and further to Qaqortoq and Narsarsuaq.
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.