Godthåb

  

Godthåb Nuuk (Inuit)
Capital city
Capital city of Greenland
Mt. Sermitsiaq overlooking the Nuussuaq district
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): "Good Hope" (meaning of Godthåb in Danish)
Location of Godthåb in Greenland
Country	Greenland
Region	King Christian IX Land
Incorporated	1728
Government
• Type	Mayor–council government
• Mayor	Charlotte Ludvigsen
Area
• Total	690 km2 (270 sq mi)
Elevation	5 m (16 ft)
Population
• Estimate (2020)	35,497
Time zone	Western Greenland Standard (UTC-3)
• Summer (DST)	Western Greenland Daylight (UTC-2)
Primary airport	Godthåb International Airport

Godthåb, also known as Nuuk in Greenlandic Inuit, is the capital and largest city of Greenland. It is also the country's largest cultural and economic center, as well as being the world's northern-most and coldest capital city. It is the administrative center of King Christian IX Land, one of the administrative regions of Greenland. The nearest major cities to Godthåb are St. John's in the Maritimes and Reykjavík in Iceland. Godthåb had a population of 35,497 as of January 2020, about one-third of the country's population.

The area was inhabited by prehistoric Paleo-Eskimo people for thousands of years and later by Viking colonists from the 10th century on, but the city was formally founded in 1728 by the Dano-Norwegian governor Claus Paarss when he relocated Hans Egede's earlier Hope Colony (Haabets Koloni) to the mainland, and was named Godthåb ("Good Hope"). "Nuuk" is the Greenlandic Inuit word for "cape" (Danish: næs). It is so named because of its position at the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea. The original de facto capital of the Greenlandic Norse early colonies, the Western Settlement, is located inland from Godthåb along the fjord.

As the center of the Danish colonial government it quickly replaced the older Greenlandic Norse settlements as the main center of Greenlandic society, politics, and economic life. Since the independence of Greenland in 1876, the city has been the seat of the Landstinget (Parliament) and the Monarchy of Greenland. A number of foreign embassies are present in the capital, with the oldest being the Danish (originally Skandinavian), Sierran, Continental, Manitoban (originally Canadian) and Superian embassies that opened in 1877–1878. Greenland's largest corporation by market cap and one of the country's biggest employers, Polaroil, is headquartered in the city, and the University of Greenland, the nation's main higher educational institution, has its main campus in Godthåb.

It is the main transportation hub in the country for both international and domestic travel, with daily domestic and international flights to and from Godthåb International Airport, and the Godthåb Central Station is one of the main stops along the West Greenland Line, the country's only passenger railway, which connects many towns along the western coast of the island by train. The Royal Arctic Line also provides boat service to many towns villages along the entire coast of Greenland from the port of Godthåb.

Godthåb receives its electric power mainly from the renewable energy-powered Buksefjord hydroelectric power plant by way of a 132 kV powerline crossing Ameralik fjord over a distance of 5,376 m (17,638 ft), the world's longest free span.

Government

As the capital of Greenland, Godthåb is the administrative centre of the country, containing all of the important government buildings and institutions. The public sector bodies are also the town's largest employer.

International relations

Sister cities

• Ushuaia, Argentina
• Vancouver, Astoria
• Urga, China
• Sapporo, Japan
• Changchun, Manchuria
• Iqaluit, Manitoba
• Riverside, Sierra
• Aalborg, Denmark
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Saint Anthony, Superior