The bronze statue of Hans Egede stands on the slope above the old colonial harbour, looking out over Nuuk Fjord. Egede — Norwegian Lutheran missionary, founder of the colonial settlement, and the figure most responsible for the Danish colonization of Greenland — arrived in 1721 and stayed for fifteen years. His statue is the most prominent landmark in the old quarter.
The viewpoint around the statue is one of the better ones in the city: the coloured colonial buildings below, the fjord beyond, and on clear days the mountains and ice to the east. The statue is freely accessible at all times.
A story
Hans Egede arrived in Greenland in 1721 searching for the descendants of the Norse settlers who had disappeared from the island in the fifteenth century. He found no Norse — they were gone, probably killed by climate change and conflict — but spent fifteen years among the Inuit, learned their language, and established the mission that would eventually become Nuuk. His relationship with the Inuit was complex: he was a devoted missionary who genuinely learned the language and culture, and also the primary agent of a colonial enterprise that would transform Greenlandic society irrevocably. The statue faces outward toward the fjord he arrived on in 1721, with his back to the city his mission created.