Hvalsey Church is the best-preserved Norse ruin in Greenland, standing on the shore of the Hvalsey Fjord about 35km northeast of Qaqortoq. The stone walls of the church still rise to nearly their full original height, making it possible to appreciate the building's original scale and quality. This was not a rough outpost chapel but a solid, professionally built stone church that would not have looked out of place in rural Norway or Iceland.
The site is reached by boat from Qaqortoq — most tour operators run excursions, or you can charter a small vessel. The fjord setting is beautiful in its own right: steep dark cliffs, clear water, the occasional iceberg drifting through. Allow a couple of hours at the site to walk the surrounding farmstead remains as well as the church itself. There are no facilities, no interpretive panels, no gift shop — just a 600-year-old stone building in a fjord, and the silence.