Nuuk turns 300 years old Tuesday 29 August 2028, and mayor Avaaraq S. Olsen has a dream: In just two years, part of the jubilee party’s artistic program will take place around a permanently erected open-air stage at Spækhusnæsset in the city’s historic quarter, where it all began in the summer of 1728.
– The planning of the 300th anniversary has begun, and it will be obvious to include Spækhusnæsset in the celebrations, says Avaaraq S. Olsen to Sermitsiaq.
Nuuk turns 300 years old Tuesday 29 August 2028, and mayor Avaaraq S. Olsen has a dream: In just two years, part of the jubilee party’s artistic program will take place around a permanently erected open-air stage at Spækhusnæsset in the city’s historic quarter, where it all began in the summer of 1728.
– The planning of the 300th anniversary has begun, and it will be obvious to include Spækhusnæsset in the celebrations, says Avaaraq S. Olsen to Sermitsiaq.
The town’s citizens and guests like to use the old town, but Spækhusnæsset is situated as a strange gap between the historic area and the busy coastal path to Tuapannguit and Radiofjeldet. The exception was on a Sunday in September 2024, when masses of people attended the unveiling of the landmark Arnarulunnguaq memorial stone and the participation in the 5th Thule Expedition.
Since then, the municipality has experimented with the area. Sometimes with huge piles of dirt that children and young people use for BMX tracks; other times (like today) the space is cleared. Sometimes the entrance is blocked by large boulders, which make the headland car-free; other times (like today) it is possible to park the car.
In Nuuk, good proposals can run aground due to lack of space, but Spækhusnæsset, with its central location, holds untapped potential: Facing the fjord, a large and already planned area; towards Tuapannguit a dramatic mountainside as if created for an amphitheater. Arnarulunnguaq deserves company, and the municipal council of Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq supported Avaaraq S. Olsen’s proposal for a comprehensive plan for the historic quarter of Nuup Saava earlier this year.
– It is also my vision that we also create an area like Spækhusnæsset without large buildings, where we give people the opportunity to simply be present in the middle of the city to hear the birds and the waves, says Avaaraq S. Olsen.
The difficult balance
The comprehensive plan, which covers the historic axis from Aqqaluks Plads to Spækhusnæsset, does not start from year 0. Since a local plan in 2000, many (imaginative) thoughts have been thought about the use of the old town – from quiet reflection and children’s play to housing and a hotel. It was precisely the last proposal that got the city’s citizens on the barricades, as a Malaysian company wanted to build a luxury hotel on Spækhusnæsset.
In 2023, Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq asked the city’s citizens about their wishes for the future use of Nuup Saava. As a common thread in citizen involvement runs the desire for a district that invites you to stay all year round. About Spækhusnæsset, 64 percent answered that the place should be a recreational area with a focus on children and families. 25 percent voted for a shop, café and hotel, and 22 percent voted for a cultural center or public community center. The municipality follows the wishes of the majority in further planning.
– The old nuummiut help the city change in step with development, but many feelings are closely linked to the old part of town. The difficult task for the municipality is to find the balance between preserving and at the same time creating a living, cultural and historical area, so that Nuup Saava gets its natural place in the city’s 300-year story, says Avaaraq S. Olsen about his proposal for a targeted comprehensive plan for the area.
Availability all year round
The municipality owns the old, red shipyard buildings with the Kittat leather boathouse, the Nuutoqaq local museum, the Unicorn restaurant and the national tourist board Visit Greenland. In a privately owned section of the building was Cafe Kûnguak, which this week is moving to the old Kalaaliaraq in the city centre.
A benchmark for citizens and municipal politicians is the area’s year-round accessibility, and therefore the use of the old shipyard area is being changed.
Visit Greenland is moving, and the municipality is discussing together with the artistic and creative environment in Nuuk what makes the most sense to use the premises for. The mayor’s idea is not just small trade stalls, but also creative workshops, where people meet the artist in the process of creating his works.
In recent years, Restaurant Unicorn has been closed in the summer in favor of Qooqqut Nuan, but at the strong request of the municipality, the eatery is again open all year round.
The fur sewing room must be bigger to create better accessibility, including fur sewing at evening school, where many already today learn to sew the Greenlandic national costume from scratch.
The local museum puts an even greater focus on the story of Nuuk’s colorful history over the 300 years.
A short distance from the shipyard area is Holms Hus, which after extensive renovation has been converted into Bogens Hus with literary lectures, readings and workshops. A need that has become greater after the closure of the city’s only bookstore, Atuagkat.
Year-round accessibility must be taken quite literally, and the mayor proposes security-creating street lighting from Aqqaluks Plads to Spækhusnæsset.
– Much has been initiated in Nuup Saava to tie cultural heritage, urban life, security, nature and activity together, and we respect the many feelings that are attached to the individual areas. The plans must be realized with care, and the citizens must feel heard. This kind of thing takes time in a municipal system, but in turn helps to keep the municipal council and administration on track, says Avaaraq S. Olsen.
Money allocated to budget 2027
The municipality hires a consulting company to plan the comprehensive plan for Nuup Saava, which is based solidly on the extensive citizen involvement in 2023. The municipality promises during 2027 to keep the population informed about the new activities in the old town.
It costs money to realize the comprehensive plan, and it can be obtained from municipal accounts for recreational areas and the new city strategies. The municipal board agrees on the main lines in budget 2027 with separate grants for four city strategies: Nuuk 25 million kroner, Paamiut and Tasiilaq each 10 million kroner and Ittoqqortoormiit 5 million kroner.
Budgets for next year also include money for better signage with traditional text and modern QR codes that tell the city’s history. It could be, for example, in the old cemetery at the cathedral Annaassisatta Oqaluffia, where the psalmist Rasmus Berthelsen, the editor Lars Møller and the linguist Samuel Kleinschmidt are buried. Today, the place is overgrown and the graves have sunk together, but a clean-up and clear signage will tell visitors to the cemetery about a decisive period in Nuuk’s and Greenland’s history.
