Qaqortoq, Greenland: Colorful Houses Above the Fjord Ice

The town fountain in the main square is Greenland's only fountain and a point of civic pride out of all proportion to its size. The square around it is the heart of Qaqortoq's social life and the logical starting point for any walk. The Qaqortoq Museum, a short walk uphill, covers Norse and Inuit history in southern Greenland, including the Norse settlement at Hvalsey nearby, which is among the best-preserved Norse ruins in Greenland. The museum is small but informative, with English signage.

The Stone and Man sculpture trail threads through the town and the surrounding hills — nineteen outdoor sculptures carved directly into rock faces by Nordic and Greenlandic artists from 1993 onward. The trail takes about ninety minutes at a moderate pace. The carvings range from abstract to figurative, and the way they emerge from the natural rock at unexpected points along the path is the main pleasure.

Boat tours from the harbor visit the Hvalsey Church ruin, about fifteen nautical miles up the fjord. The Norse church, built in the twelfth century, is unusually well-preserved — four walls still standing, the window openings intact — and the last recorded event there was a wedding in 1408, after which Greenland's Norse settlements vanished from written record. The fjord on the way there is studded with small icebergs from June through August.

The town's Brugseni supermarket stocks Greenlandic specialities including dried musk ox and reindeer jerky, dried fish, and local craft work — knitted goods and sealskin products that are legal to bring back to most countries (not the United States). A short walk uphill to the red and white church gives the widest view of the harbor and the fjord; this is where most port-day photographs are taken.