Hans Egede, Bronze missionary statue at Nuuk Cathedral, Greenland
The Hans Egede statue is a bronze monument in Nuuk showing the missionary holding a pastoral staff and bible. Standing about 7 feet (2 meters) tall on a stone base, it sits on a hillside overlooking the waterfront.
The statue was erected in 1922, funded by Greenlanders through private collections supported by secular and religious authorities and Danish churchgoers, to mark the 200th anniversary of Hans Egede's arrival in 1721. Egede founded Nuuk in 1728. Responsibility for the monument passed from the KGH to the then Nuuk municipality in 1953.
The monument sits at the center of conversations about Christianity's arrival and Greenland's colonial past. Local communities hold varied perspectives on what this statue means to them today.
The statue stands on a cobblestone base on a hill above Nuuk Cathedral in Old Nuuk, near the shore. It is reached on foot from the old harbour district, and the Statue of the Mother of the Sea lies only 100 metres away. The figure and pedestal together measure roughly 7 feet.
The statue has been painted over multiple times, sparking debate about whether it should stay in its current form. In 2020, residents voted on the monument's future, making public opinion directly shape its story.
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